Remnant's First Huntsmen
by blaiseingfire
Summary: Throughout Remnant's history, only women were able to unlock their auras. But then, 4 males was able to unlock their aura through unknown means. Headmistress Oznia decided to offer them a chance to become Remnant's first ever huntsmen. But the lads will soon realize that the offer is more for their protection. Being the only males with aura has put a large target on their backs.
1. Welcome to Beacon

**A/N** : _Hello everyone, and welcome to this new fic of mine._

 _There are 2 fics out there that inspired this: Just Add a Y by Kaosreaper4208 and Only Boy by Imaginary Guy117. Both involve the premise of Jaune being the only male with Aura (where women were the only ones to be able to have it)._

 _Both tackle the idea with different ideas and issues (one more light-hearted and the other more serious), but both are good reads nonetheless and I recommend giving them a try._

 _Anyway, they inspired me to try something similar, but instead of Jaune we have four people total. Coming up with ideas, plot points, and new lore/world building for this was surprisingly fun and made me exited to do it._

 _Anyway, here's the first chapter of Remnant's First Huntsmen. Enjoy!_

* * *

The elevator ascended up the tower. Jaune's heart thumped heavily and steadily. He gripped his chest and steading his breathing to calm down. He was honestly surprised he wasn't a sweating mess by now. He was fairly sure that even if he did break down, it would totally be justified, giving his situation.

He was currently at Beacon Academy, one of the four prestige huntress academies of Remnant. This very institution trained some of the finest women and turned them into the best of the best of Remnant's defenders against the darkness of the Grimm hordes. But the fact that Jaune was attending this academy is at first glance an anomaly because of one factor: he was male.

By whatever laws of nature that made it so, women were the only ones that were able to unlock and use their aura. Why men couldn't was a mystery to this day. Many theories as to why still circulate, the more popular ones being that men unlocked their differently than women, they just didn't have it, or it was the gift of an old goddess to womenkind. None were ever proven to be true, but many believed at least one of those possibilities.

If Jaune wasn't feeling so good at the moment he would have snickered at those thoughts, because he was living proof that those theories and statements were false.

It actually happened several months ago. Jaune's hometown came under attack by a wave of Grimm. His mother and father went to the front lines to fight them back, but some Ursa managed to slip through the defenses and made their way to his home. Joan, his twin sister who was actually training to be a huntress, took the family weapon, Crocea Mors, and did her best to defend her sisters and brother. She did her best and killed most of them, but one got a lucky swing and disarmed her of her sword, before biting down on her arm and thrashing violently.

She would have died, but Jaune (in an act that in hindsight was a very stupid one) ran up, grabbed the sword, and stabbed the Ursa. It roared and threw Joan away, and Jaune soon found himself flanked by more Ursa. Most of the memory was a blur or out outright lost in a sea of black emptiness, but he held out and dodged their attacks for a short while before getting his ass handed to himself ten times sideways.

He woke up several days later in the hospital. His family was all there and were beyond grateful that he was alive and well. Though the second brought mystery. According to Joan and the others, Jaune got messed up badly. He shouldn't have even been alive, yet all he had were a few scars. That was when one of the nurses came and told them why.

His aura saved and healed him.

HIS aura.

Not even the nurse sounded like she believed it, but that was the only logical explanation, esspecially when everyone saw his aura glow firsthand. The following weeks were filled with tests and examinations. No one could figure out why, but Jaune, a male, undoubtedly had aura.

Soon after, someone of importance visited the Arc household: Oznia. Very few knew her first name or much else about her, but she was a living prodigy. Oznia was a well respected and experienced huntress, always ahead in what she did and was even the youngest person to become Headmistress of an academy. And she was here because of certain rumors she heard floating around, about a male who had aura. She wanted to see it for herself, and the rumors were confirmed to her after a one-sided spar with his sister.

Oznia then gave him what was perhaps the offer of a lifetime. She offered him a spot at Beacon Academy to train to become a huntsman. It was an offer that she and his family urged him to think over and consider carefully, Oznia wouldn't even accept an answer until two weeks passed. He did heed the warning took the time to think things over. After three weeks, he made his decision.

Jaune was taken out of his thoughts when the elevator stopped with a ding. He took one final, deep calming breath and stepped out when the elevator opened.

He was now on the top floor in Oznia's office, if her instructions were correct. Glass windows covered all sides as a collage of gears tinked and clanked overhead. Jaune didn't stop moving, making his way over to Oznia's desk, but it was quite apparent that he was not alone. Infront of him and the desk were three other boys, all around his age if he had to guess. They turned to him as he approached.

The first one was a white-haired man who wore the fatigues and armor of an Atlas soldier, standing with his arms behind his back. Though his armor looked different from the standard set. The plating was red, he had oversized tan shoulder guards, was without arm guards and gloves, and was without a helmet. The man also had a pulse rifle strapped on his back and some kind of one sided chainsaw sword on his hip. He gave Jaune a blank stare as he approached.

The second one was fully covered in tan and brown clothing that made Jaune wonder how he wasn't uncomfortably sweating in it. He had a green-greyish mask and goggles covering his face while a green helmet covered the rest of his head. He had an old and rustic looking gun strapped over a frontal piece of brown armor. Jaune couldn't help but notice the small tally marks carved in it.

The final one was a black-haired faunus with hedgehog ears. He wore light trousers and a white shirt with a black and red light jacket with white fur around the top. Jaune also noticed that he had bulky shoes and wrist gauntlets over fingerless gloves. Jaune looked over the shoes and gauntlets, wondering if they were weapons of some kind, but quickly looking away under his not amused brown-eyed glare.

Jaune walked up to the edge of the group and stood there with them. He stood there quietly and occasionally stole a glance at the others, sometimes catching them doing the same. He didn't make any attempt to converse with them and neither did any of them. He felt underdressed compared to them, in only jeans and a hoodie, and some just adequately breastplate and joint pads that his family barely manage to scrap the lien for… though he was very grateful for it.

He began to grow curious about the other guys. Why were they here in the Headmistress's office? Were they here for the same reason he was? It seemed a little absurd, but considering what he was here for…. he swallowed his anxiety and spoke.

"So," he started as the others looked towards him, "what are you guys here for?"

"I-" the masked one began to saw but then everyone snapped back to the elevator as they heard it ding. Everyone stood straight as they saw Oznia stepped out and walk towards them.

"Headmistress Oznia, Ma'am," the Atlas soldier said as he saluted her. Jaune heard the faunus scoff quietly.

"Your discipline is welcomed, but necessary," she said with a smile. "I'm not like Ironwood, you can be at ease around me and the other professors, Mr. Angelos." He stood at ease as Oznia walked around and leaned against the front of her desk. "I'm sorry for being late, there was a surprise manner that required my attention."

"It's ok ma'am, we weren't waiting long," the masked one said.

"Thank you for your patience. Now before we begin, I would like to do a little icebreaker. Please, tell us your name and why I brought you here, starting with you if you wouldn't mind."

' _Crap,_ ' Jaune thought as Oznia looked right at him, and the other's gazes followed. He thought he was done with these dreaded icebreakers after he finished high school. ' _Welp, no use complaining about it._ '

"My name is Jaune Arc. I live here in Vale and...Oznia asked me to come here because… I have aura." he winced as he hesitated at the last part. He still wasn't used to saying that.

The Atlas soldier nodded and spoke next. "I am Corporal Gabriel Angelos of the Atlas military, and General Ironwood recommend I come here after I obtained aura as well."

"Shadow Nahk," the faunus grunted, "from Mistral, here for the reason as you guys."

"Rost Kaitse, Rodnia militia of Vacuo. I'm here for the same reasons," the fourth one said as he loosened the straps of his mask and goggles, making them hang idly. Jaune and the other guys winced at the burn marks on his face. Those looked painful.

"As you all know, I am Oznia, Headmistress of Beacon Academy," she greeted, "and I must say that I am very appreciative that you all accepted my offer." Jaune offered a small smile as he and the rest nodded. "Now, the reason I invited you all here to my office is because I wanted to clarify a few things with you four. First, all of Beacon's staff know about you and that you'll be attending here. Every professor expressed delight in meeting and teaching you, but none of them will show any favoritism."

She paused before continuing. "Second, here." She took out four scrolls and looked them over before giving it to them. "Every student gets specialized scrolls while they're training to be huntresses. I wanted to make sure you each got yours personally. If there's any question about them in the future, don't be afraid to ask."

"What's different about these compared to other scrolls?"Rost asked as they pocket their scrolls.

"In addition to a vast increase in durability, these specialized huntress scrolls have access to restricted functions, such as huntress emergency beacons and a beacon for rocket lockers."

"We actually got the rocket lockers out of beta-testing?" Gabriel asked.

"Rocket lockers?" Jaune asked as Rost and Shadow raised an eyebrow at the term.

"Rocket propelled lockers. If you activate the beacon on your scroll the locker will launch to you," Oznia explained.

"That sounds pretty cool and handy," Ross said. Shadow and Jaune nodded in agreement, but a part of him shivered at the thought of what would've happened if those things existed when he was in middle school.

"If you have any other question, Professor Goodwitch will hold a class about them, among other things, during the first week. Now, initiation is tomorrow and all of the other huntress students have some idea of what to expect from here. Since none of you have attended one before, I'm going to explain the process and what would be expected of you."

Oznia spent the next hour or so explaining to the boys about Beacon, and what they could expect and what was expected of them, along with answering any questions they had. To Jaune, most of it sounded like the typical lecture you'd get at the start of a regular school, but with added emphasis on physical activity and combat, and the likely possibility of harm or worse if they weren't careful.

He would be lying if he felt a little fear wake inside of him at that last part, but he managed to fight it down. He was green, but not completely defenseless. In the months between the offer and now, his mother, father, and twin made sure to get as much sparing in as they could. He went from lasting five seconds to five minutes. Considering two of them are huntresses (one in training) and one was an experienced guardsman, it was a big step for the short time span.

"Now, are there any more question?" Oznia asked No one said anything. "Ok. Now, there's one- well, two more things I want to discuss with you." She waited for them to give her nonverbal gestures to continue. "In about an hour, the airship bringing the new students will be arriving. From there, they're meeting in the auditorium for a mandatory meeting. Its nothing we haven't already gone over, but I want you there for just after the opening speech. There, I'm going to reveal you all to the rest of the school."

"Reveal us?" Rost asked.

"Did you have to say it in a way that makes us sound like property or a prize?" Shadow grunted.

"That's not what she meant and you know it," Gabriel chimed in with a glare.

Oznia coughed into her hand to get their attention "My apologies if it sounded like that, but you four are extremely extraordinary individuals whose very existence can change the world." She informs them.

"But not everyone will see it that way, as some of you know." Jaune peeked left and saw Shadow's and Rost's hands tighten. "Though not as extreme, those feeling of skepticism and unease will be within some of the student body, especially those who have had few interactions with men in their lives thus far thanks to this career path. It won't be much, but I am sure I can ease some other tension if I, the Headmistress, vouch for you all being here." Ozina explains to them.

Jaune and the others nodded in some form. It made sense and they didn't see any reason to argue.

"What was the second thing?" Jaune asked.

The Headmistress smiled and stood up straight. "As a small compensation and thanks for coming as soon and early as you did, I had the cafeteria staff make you some fresh pizza." Ozina suddenly became one of the coolest people ever in Jaune's book.

* * *

If the pizza was any indication, then Beacon's food was ten times better than any of his previous schools. After they ate, Oznia gave them a short rundown on how the speech in the amphitheater would go and then let them go. They all went their separate ways and would regroup right before the speech.

It was now a few minutes before it would begin. Jaune ran up to the other three guys, who were waiting just by the door. "You're almost late," Shadow said.

"Sorry, I got lost," Jaune said as he approached. "My sister's attending here so I tried to find her when the ship arrived. I couldn't and ended up running into and making friends with this other girl, Ruby. What have you guys been up to."

"I just stuck to the sidelines and observed everyone coming in," Shadow explained. "I did see those two walk up to a girl with a cart, and then explode," he added with a smirk.

"Wait, that was actually an explosion I heard?!" Jaune gasped as he turned to Gabriel and Rost.

"Gabe did it… but we decided to agree it was an accident for the sake of his dignity," Rost added the last part when Gabriel glared at him.

"What happened?"

"Are you familiar with Weiss Schnee?" Gabriel asked. Jaune shook his head. "She's the heiress to the SDC, the biggest dust mining and distribution company in Remnant. I thought that with the two of us being from Atlas, it was a good idea to get on her good side and become acquaintances. It was working up until Rost tripped into her dust containers."

"No my fault she didn't have better cases. Besides I'm not the one that sneezed when the dust got in my nose."

"Don't remind me," Gabriel sighed as he pinched his nose, earning a chuckle from Shadow and Jaune. Their scroll suddenly vibrated and Jaune pulled his out first.

"It's the cue from Oznia. We go in now," he said. The four of them opened the doors and walked down the short hall to the amphitheater. They entered the now dark room and stopped right at the entrance inside the room, spread evenly as Oznia's instructions. A few girls heard them and turned their attention to them and whispered to their peers about them, but the guys ignored them.

Oznia soon took the stage and walked up to the microphone.

"Good afternoon everyone. I'll keep this short. You are all here because you want to be huntresses, the proud defenders of humanity against the Grimm. You came here in a search for the knowledge to do so, and once you are done you will move on to protect those who can't. You may believe that all you need is to just learn more and you'll be set on your merry way, but that is not true. Knowledge alone will not take you the whole way. Knowledge is information, but experience is understanding. Only once you have experience will you truly understand what it is you signed up for, and only then will you be ready. We're here to extend the hand, to offer the opportunities for knowledge and experience to you, but it is up to you take the first step, and grip that hand."

Jaune wasn't sure how to judge it, but he thought it was a good speech. Something seemed visibly off about her, but he couldn't put his finger of what it was. Oznia then gave them a short rundown, an abridged version of what he and the other guys were told.

"Miss Goodwitch will fill you in on the rest. However, before I take my leave, I have one final announcement to make. It is an important one, to where I'm making the upper year students watch this on their scrolls, so pay attention." Any hushed whispers among the crowd were silenced. "Now, I'm sure you've all heard some of the rumors among the kingdoms. Rumors about there being men who have had their aura unlocked."

Snickering and hushed whispers could be heard in the crowd.

"Today I am here to tell you… those rumors are true." The snickers were replaced with gasps and the whispering grew more numerous. "I have seen them with my own eyes. I have traveled all across Remnant to confirm those rumors myself. I am still unsure as to how, but there are four men who have aura."

The lads remembered that cue and braced themselves just before a bright spotlight turned on and illuminated them, causing all of the new students to quickly turn to them.

"And they will be attending Beacon with you all. They will Beacon's… no, they will be Remnant's. First. Huntsmen."

The entire amphitheater erupted in conversation at the revelation. Jaune looked over the crowd. He saw faces expression shock, surprise, intrigue, and a few… less than pleased glares. He soon found and made eye contact with his twin sister. She gave him a thumbs up with a proud filled smile. He returned the smile with a nod.

He briefly looked left to see how the other's fared. Gabriel had a blank stare, Rost had his mask and helmet on, and Shadow seemed to be narrowing his eyes at someone.

It was at least a minute before Oznia spoke again. "Now, I will take my leave. Professor and Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch will fill you all in on the rest. Boys, you know where to meet me."

The boys nodded as Oznia left the stage. They followed suit and turned to left the amphitheater, leaving the girls to gossip about the recent event.

* * *

 **A/N** : _And that's the end of chapter 1._

 _At first, I was worried about creating OC's, but I believe I managed them pretty well._

 _Also here's just a little more info about their appearances:_

 _-Rost Kaitse: based off of the elite skin for Fuze from Rainbow 6: Siege._

 _-Gabriel Angelos: based off of Gabriel Angelos from Warhammer 40k. Appearance is the basic Atlas soldier uniform, but the armor is red and he has 40k Space Marine shoulder pads (Aka the best - Austin)_

 _-Shadow Nahk: based off of Shadow the Hedgehog, just look up any fanart of humanoid shadow (Aka also the best - Austin)_

 _Also special thanks to Austin Ga Kill (same guy who got me started on A Drunken Arcwitch Marriage), for helping me out with ideas and betaing, and for writing Oznia's speech for this… and for highjacking the ending a/n_

 _(Austin - *clapping* Bravo Bravo good show my boy a great first chapter brings a tear to my eye!)_

 _(Make sure to check back for more chapters edited by the amazing me! Most likely. I am taking this whole ending now, and you know check out more stuff by Blaiseing cause he's cool.)_

 _Kiss ass XD and I swear to god if you keep egging me to ship Gabriel and Neon I will turn it into a tragedy_

 _(Austin - Hey as long as there is no harems I am good)_

 _Thanks again for reading! Have a great day :)_


	2. Settling In

**A/N** : _Sup everybody. So I got a lot more feedback from the last chapter than I thought I would. Thank you guys, I really appreciate it._

 _Also forgot to mention this earlier, but Oznia's appearance (and of another character mentioned in this chapter) is based on an image by_ _dishwasher1910_ _over on deviantart (with his permission of course). Go check him out, he makes really good work._

 _Anyway, here's chapter 2. Enjoy!_

* * *

Even over a hundred feet away from the closed doors of the amphitheater, the four future huntsmen could still hear the echoes of the girls' conversations.

"Seems we've caused quite the ruckus," Rost noted.

"Indeed you have," they all turned to Oznia as she approached. "That turned out better than expected. Thank you for your cooperation boys."

"No problem," Rost said.

"Your welcome," said Jaune.

"Happy to assist," Gabriel nodded.

Shadow just 'hmm'ed' and nodded as well.

"Now, the girls will still be at their assembly for a while longer. And then afterward they'll get a tour of the campus. I would like to give you four the tour of Beacon beforehand. We should finish before the girls are let out, and afterwards you boys will free to do as you wish for the rest of the day."

The boys nodded and Oznia began the tour. There was a lot of ground between each building, but Jaune chalked it up as good exercise. He took note of the important locations such as the library, dorms, cafeteria, training areas, and where several bathrooms and one public shower room have been converted just for them.

Jaune also discovered that Shadow's shoes were some kind of special anti-gravity shoes. He hovered an inch or two off the ground and skated his merry way for most of the tour. Jaune thought it looked a little funny with how slow they went, but thought best to hide his smile from Shadow.

They also gathered the attention of every student they came across. Everywhere they went, girls would start gossiping with one another, looking and glaring at them, and some even took pictures. Though those ones quickly fled when Oznia looked at them.

"Alright, that should be it," Oznia completed the tour in just under an hour, ending in the locker room. " You know where your lockers are, so you can store your armor and weapons here until tomorrow morning. All that's left that's required is that tonight, you all must sleep in the secondary training area with the rest of the students."

This, of course, earned a few raised eyebrows. "Is that really a wise idea?" Gabriel asked.

"I'm going to have to agree with the Atlesian on this one," Shadow said. "That doesn't seem like a good idea."

"Afraid of a little attention Shadow?" Rost asked with an unseen grin.

"I actually don't mind," Jaune regretted saying that a moment later.

"Oh really now~" It was obvious what kind of face Rost had on behind the mask.

"Not like that! I'm just really used to it because I grew up with seven sisters!" That earned four pairs of wide eyes. Even Shadow expressed an emotion that wasn't blank or annoyed.

"S-seven?" Gabriel asked.

"Damn, how are you still sane?" Rost chuckled.

"It wasn't that bad," Jaune replied with a shrug.

"Anyway, unless there's anything else you need, or have any concerns you would like to voice, your time is yours," Oznia concluded.

The boys nodded. Gabriel put his armor and weapons away and left, Rost and Jaune left the locker room with all of their equipment, and Shadow put his gauntlets and grav-shoes away before leaving.

* * *

Rost Kaitse made his way to the gun range. He thought it was best to do a maintenance check on his weapon. The last time he so did was a little over a week ago, a few days before he set out for Beacon. Better to find a problem and fix it now than have his weapon malfunction during the initiation tomorrow.

Along the way, he passed by many other older year students. Each and every single one of them diverted their attention to him as he walked. Most were just stares, but others started gossiping, sizing him up, and in his peripheral vision he could notice a few glare at him. The mask and goggles helped him ignore them. He actually turned to a few of the ones that glaring at him and they retreated almost immediately. He got slight enjoyment out of that.

He was a little surprised that no one came up to him to ask him any questions like he thought would happen. He supposed that the way he carried himself when walking, having his weapon in hand, and how his face was covered in a mask made everyone second guess doing that.

Eventually, he made it to the firing range. He ignored the stares and whispers and took one of the last two spots near the end. He then put the gun down on the counter in front of him and looked it over.

It was an old automatic rifle with a top loading drum magazine, designed during the Great War if he recalled correctly. The outer parts have seen better days and were permanently stained with rust and blood, but they were far from old parts and the inner mechanisms have been modified and replaced over the decades by its previous owners and himself. Despite the appearance, it was a well built and effective gun for the modern day.

He gripped the side foregrip, brought it up to his shoulder, and fired down upon the targets. He first fired in long full auto bursts and then in short controlled bursts. The stock felt study but the foregrip had to be tightened, and the sights just to be slightly adjusted. But other than that, it felt fine.

He then removed the side switch cover and flipped it. The gun then transformed into double-sided battle ax. He gave it a few test swings and tested the blades' sharpness with his finger. One blade needed to be sharpened, but otherwise all was good. All he had to do now was do a field strip to check the inner part for any wear, tear, and dust.

But right as he transformed the weapon back and put it down, a bright flash from his side drew his attention. He turned and saw a rabbit faunus holding an antique looking camera. She had a smile but it quickly faded when he turned to her. She put the camera down and looked nervous as Rost stared at her. Neither moved for several moments.

"Can you please not do that again without asking first?" Rost asked with an assertive tone. "It's rather rude to do so."

The faunus very quickly nodded and just as quickly muttered, "Sorry," before hurrying off before Rost could ask why she took a picture of him to begin with. He turned to his other side and saw the other girls looking in his direction. Most just blankly stared at him or started whispering to one another, but one girl with a beret and sunglasses seemed to be chuckling at him.

Rost suddenly wasn't comfortable with the attention he was getting. Rumors about him intimidating an upper year student would no doubt start spreading with exaggerated detail. He packed up his stuff and left the range, deciding to find someplace more private for his weapon maintenance.

* * *

Gabriel Angelos made his way to the CCT in little time with no trouble. He noticed a lot of stares and whispers directed at him along the way but he paid them no mind. One short elevator trip later and he was finally at one of the long-range communications room.

He took a seat at the terminal farthest terminal and inserted his scroll. He then typed in the appropriate information and commands and waited as the screen showed the call was connecting. A minute passed until finally the call went through and was answered. The screen displayed the face of a middle-aged, sturn man with slightly graying black hair.

"General Ironwood," Gabriel saluted.

"Corporal Angelos," the general returned the salute, "but please drop the formalities and call me James. You still hold rank, but are now officially recognized as a huntsman and not a soldier."

"Ok sir- James. Sorry, force-of-habit." Gabriel apologized but took a moment to look around the room James was in. "Where's Chambers? I thought she would be here as well."

"Unfortunately, there was a manner at Atlas Academy that required her immediate attention. She didn't say what but said it was important. She's very sorry she couldn't make the call," James explained. Gabriel nodded, it was understandable. James and Chambers Ironwood were busy people after all, he's surprised they have any spare time between the military, huntress academy, and counsel. "But, she did want me to pass on her praise and congratulations to you. She's proud of you, we both are."

"I- thank you," Gabriel said with a genuine smile.

"Now, how has Vale treated you so far? How's Beacon?" Ironwood asked.

Gabriel went on to explain how everything was. He described how nice Vale and Beacon appeared. He told them what the other huntsmen were like at first glance. He unfortunately didn't catch himself from mentioning the incident with Weiss Schnee. Ironwood found it hilarious, much to his embarrassment.

"So let me ask you something else: What do you think of Headmistress Oznia?" Ironwood asked with a serious tone.

Gabriel had to think for a moment. "I'm not entirely sure sir. She seems nice and I want to trust her, but part of me is warranting caution."

"Explain."

"Its..." Gabriel paused for a few moments to gather his thoughts. "Remember when we had the meeting with the other top heads and officials of Atlas about what to do with me, and how despite all of the good intentions they all put forth, you could just tell they all had some sort of hidden, maleficent intent."

"I remember," Ironwood grimaced. Some of the things they wanted to do were… let's just say James had better physical and verbal restraint than Chambers did, but on the bright side those individuals withdrew their 'brilliant' ideas and never brought them back up again. "You honestly think Oznia is has some kind of vile intent? Because I-"

"I don't, but that's the problem. I can tell, thanks to how those others acted, that she's hiding some kind of intent for us, but I can't tell if… in this context, why hide something?"

"Well, as I was about to say, that's just how Oznia is. Her keeping information to herself is a small unfortunate trait she learned from her long ex- years of experience. Whatever it is she's keeping from you, no harm or foul play will come from it. And I can guarantee that that is the case."

"Can you be certain of that?"

"My wife and I have been working and serving with her for over two decades now, we've become very close friends. We know a lot about her, more than anyone does. I trust Oznia with my life, and so does Chambers."

Gabriel was taken back by that. From the years he spent with them, the Ironwood's didn't trust quickly or lightly. For him to say that they trusted Ozn with their lives was a very big deal.

"Besides, if I didn't, why would I be ok with sending you there with the other huntsmen?"

"... that is true," Gabriel nodded. "Ok, if you say she's alright, then she's alright. Thank you for clearing my doubts."

"Anytime," James smiled, but it dropped when he looked at his watch. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but this is all the time I could spare for this call."

"I understand, duty calls. Take care, general." Gabriel gave a salute before disconnecting the call.

* * *

Jaune Arc grunted as he was forced a step back after blocking Joan's heavy swing. Oznia was kind enough to accept their request to have one of the sparing areas reserved just for them for an hour. They wanted to get some practice in without having the whole school spy in on them.

Jaune was finally getting used to Crocea Mors, the Arc family sword and shield. It was originally passed down to Joan, but when Jaune unlocked his aura and accepted Oznia's offer, Joan passed it down to him and took up using a two-handed broadsword. She rarely if ever used the shield so it all balanced out.

Jaune found that the training with his twin was slightly paying off. When they first started he could barely last a minute, but now he was decent at blocking and countering against her. But Joan still had years of experience and Jaune only had a few months, and it showed. Despite Jaune's best efforts, he was soon knocked on his back and felt a foot press down on his chest.

"I win," Joan said as she pulled her red hoodie and mask back and offer him her hand.

"Surprising no one," Jaune said and accepted the help getting up.

"Aww come on, don't be like that," she said as she sheathed her sword, "you're actually getting better. Last time you could barely hold back one heavy swing. Here, you held against four in a row. You're getting better fast."

"Yeah, I guess I am a little bit," Jaune said, but Joan's face showed that she picked up on the doubt in his voice.

"Ok lil bro, real talk," she put a hand on his shoulder, "what's got you down?"

Jaune saw no use in keeping it from his sister. "I… guess I'm finally feeling the weight of what I signed up for, and just now realizing how underprepared I am."

"You were so excited before. I was too when you I found out you'd be coming here. What brought this doubt up now?" Joan asked with care.

"I guess it started a little bit after I made a new friend here."

"You're already making some friends?! That's awesome!" She squealed.

"Yeah," Jaune rolled his eyes with a small smile. "Her name is Ruby."

"Gothic black and red-haired girl, has a sniper scythe?"

"Yeah that's her, you saw her?"

"It was hard not too. After you guys left before Miss Goodwitch entered, she loudly proclaimed to her older sister that you were her friend. She soon got swarmed by a lot of girls asking what you were like."

"Poor girl," he chuckled. "But yeah, we started talking and she seemed nice. Did you know she's only fifteen?"

"Wait, what? She's only fifteen?!" Joan did a double take.

"Yep," Jaune nodded. "Fifteen, and she was accepted into Beacon two years for her skill."

"That's really impres-... wait," Joan blinked in realization. "I know what this is about. You feel inadequate?"

"Pretty much yeah," Jaune sighed. "Seeing Ruby boast slightly about her skill and then looking at everyone else… it made me realize just how underprepared and experienced I really am. Every girl here seems to have fought and killed Grimm before. Even the other guys have years more experience than me. Gabriel's a soldier, Rost has a worn down weapon and armor that he's obviously been using for a long time, and I'm not sure about Shadow but he has some custom hover shoes and looks like he can handle himself in a fight." He looked down at his hands. "And me? I'm just a guy who played with a sword for a few months. I haven't even killed a Grimm yet."

Joan was quiet for several moments. Jaune took it as she had no argument against it. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"Hmm?" Jaune looked back up as she spoke.

"You're not the only one who ever felt useless. How do you think I felt when that Ursa got the better of me and you almost died saving my life?" Jaune felt a small phantom pain rise up on his scars, but managed to hide it. "I honestly felt like the biggest failure for not being able to protect you, like you feel now. But, what did you think I did? Did I mope about being weak?" She picked up Crocea Mors and held it up to him. "Or, did I decide that working harder to get better so I wasn't weak and inadequate anymore was the better option?" She offered a soft smile. "How about one more round?"

Jaune returned the smile and grabbed his weapon.

* * *

Shadow Nahk leaned against the wall corner of the training area. The sunset long ago and everyone was winding down to rest for initiation tomorrow. He and the other guys inadvertently ended up sitting together, passing the time with small talk about random things. He wasn't really interested but figured it was better than nothing.

They also didn't get as much of or the type of attention from the girls than he thought of earlier. Practically all of them kept to themselves, but it was obvious that he and the other guys were the main topic of discussion throughout the room.

They got many looks, from curious, flirting, and glares. Some girls even decided to 'clumsily' drop some things and bend over to pick them up or decided to do some very provocative stretches, making sure they were in the boys' view. Jaune ended up being a blushing fool, giving the reactions the girls wanted. Gabriel kept a blank face and kept his back to the girls. Rost still had his mask and helmet for whatever reason, but it was obvious he was enjoying the view. Shadow wanted to admit it didn't affect him, but he had to sit legs crossed for a while.

All of that stopped when Jaune's older twin ended up walking over and joining their group. Though it was a little awkward since many girls wolf-whistled as she approached, which ceased once she loudly asked how her brother was doing. She definitely seemed nice and the others thought so as well.

As it became late, each guy took a spot and settled down for the night.

Shadow felt his scroll vibrate and checked to see he had a notification. ' _Hey Shadow! Sorry for taking so long to respond, it's been a busy day. How's Beacon treating my nephew?_ '

Shadow couldn't help but roll his eyes, but not in a rude way. They weren't at all related by blood, but she'd been there long enough to warrant being an honorary family member. ' _Everything's going ok so far. Nothing to really complain about. How's Maria doing?_ ' He typed. The minute until Rouge responded felt like the longest minute of his life.

' _She's doing ok, definitely better than before. She's asleep right now but I'll have her call you later tomorrow. I told you Oznia would keep her word._ '

Shadow let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. He had the smallest of doubts that the Headmistress would've gone back on their deal, but it was still good to hear that Maria was in good hands.

' _That's perhaps the best news I've heard all week. I'm that I was wrong and was just paranoid._ '

' _Did… did you just admit you were wrong?! Who are you and where's the real Shadow?_ '

' _He's dead. I killed him. I'm the android that replaced him._ '

' _Ha, maybe now I'll have a Shadow that'll actually have some manners._ '

' _Wow, didn't know you cared so little for me Aunt Rouge._ '

' _You know it sweety ;)_ '

That got a chuckle out of him, but his smile quickly faded when a new, serious thought came to mind. He did a quick check around the room before typing. ' _Hey Rouge, by any chance does she know I'm here?_ '

It took two minutes for Rouge to respond.

' _No. As far as everything appears, she doesn't know you're in Beacon, or off of Anima for that matter. Look, I know that it'll only be a matter of time until she realizes what's actually happening. But by that point, it'll be too late for her to even try anything. And if she does, then I'll staple a tail to her just to swing her around and throw her out a window._ '

Shadow wanted to laugh at the mental image of that, but couldn't. ' _Alright. I was just feeling a little paranoid recently and just wanted a little reassurance. Thank you._ '

' _No problem. I'm here if you need anything. I also can't help but notice it's late and that your initiation is in the morning. Go get some sleep, you'll need the energy._ '

' _I will. Thanks._ ' As he was about to but his scroll away, he got one more message.

' _One last thing: As much as I would like to, I don't want to receive news that I'll be a godmother for at least a year._ '

' _No promises._ ' Shadow actually chuckled as he sent the message and retired for the night.

He fell asleep rather quickly, despite the fact that he knew someone was watching him closely.

* * *

 **A/N** : _And thats a wrap._

 _I know what your thinking: Yes, I basically made Joan a Shy Gal ;), but replace the leggings with actual pants and add some armor. (Yeah but when I think of shygirls I just think of the stuff I saw on rule 34 - Austin)_

 _I wanted to do more with Rost's and Shadow's parts, but that would have revealed too much too early, character and plot wise._

 _So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Think something can be improved? Want to give me a moral boost? Leave a review, all criticism is welcomed._

 _(Also… DON'T ASK ABOUT PAIRINGS CAUSE I AM HELPING WITH THE STORY, AND I DON'T EVEN HAVE A FLIPPING CLUE WHAT IS HAPPENING BESIDES ONE THAT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED CAUSE I HAD BEEN MEMEING IT UP SINCE LIKE DAY ONE, and yeah that stuff is still being debated, and stuff. Yep. That is about that. I am good now bye guys - Austin)_

 _I sort of regret letting him type stuff for the a/n, but that's the price for him beta'ing._

 _(you love me - Austin)_

 _Anyway, thanks again for reading! Have a great day :)_


	3. Initiation

**A/N** : _Afternoon everyone._

 _So a little fun fact about those chapter: I'm taking a creative writing class and the professor was so cool that she allowed me to use this chapter and the A.D.A.M. chapter posted last week as finals to turn in for a grade. Hope I get a good grade._

 _Anyway, here's chapter 3! Enjoy :)_

* * *

Headmistress Oznia took a sip from her coffee mug, enjoying the gentle cliffside breeze, with Professor Glynda Goodwitch at her side as she looked over the students. She could feel the many emotions, ranging from nervousness to eagerness, radiate from them as they patiently waited and chatted amongst themselves. Initiation was supposed to have started a few minutes ago, but some students were missing. Actually, now that she got a second look around, four particular students were missing.

"Students," Oznia called out, getting all of the student's heads to turn to her. "By any chance, has anyone seen the boys?" she asked. It didn't make sense to her, she made sure they knew when initiation started in their private meeting with her and showed them where initiation would take place when she gave them a tour. So where were they?

The answer came when another student spoke up. "They should be coming now. We had to force them back for a bit though."

"Force them back?" Oznia raised an eyebrow. "What did they do?"

"They tried to enter the locker room while we were still getting ready," another student called out to her.

"They didn't even try to hide them peaking on us, they just walked in! Fucking perverts!" Another student shouted and suddenly most of the students started muttering and conversing in agreement.

Oznia pieced it together immediately and sighed. She honestly should have seen this coming. "Just to make sure I understand this perfectly clear, the boys tried to get into the locker room… the one labeled 'students locker room', not 'girls locker room'," most of the students lost their smiles as their eyes widened in realization. "The same locker room where all new students were instructed to go to retrieve their gear and wait for the announcement to come here?"

Most, but not all, of the students stated showing sobering faces. She even spotted Ruby mouth 'I told you so' to her older sister. "Oznia, I pulled up the security footage from outside the locker room from that time," Glynda said as she handed Oznia the scroll. The recording showed that the boys tried to enter the locker room but were blocked by some of the girls. More girls came by as it was apparent that the voices were getting louder, and the arguments finally stopped when the boys backed up when some of the girls brandished their weapons.

Oznia looked back up and glared at the students, the transparency of the scroll screen meant that they knew what she saw. Most had a nervous look, and Oznia could tell that it was because they were caught in a lie, but most looked shocked at seeing the truth, that the guys weren't trying to be perverts but actually were just trying to get their gear just like they were. Nothing more, nothing less.

"I understand that the addition of men in a once women's only school would be a problem for some of you," she stated, "but if the mere presence of the boys invokes this kind of negative responses from you, then I doubt your ability and maturity to be able to handle combat against the Grimm."

This made the students recoil back. The headmistress of the academy already doubting their ability was not a good thing. In truth, Oznia didn't doubt them, but she couldn't think of any other way to get the point across. Humanity was pushed up against the wall by the Grimm, and she always found it troubling that even when faced against such a foe, human and faunus kind will always find a way to become divided amongst themselves.

Part of her job in running the huntress academy was to ensure that such prejudices were stamped out, that the students understood that we were all in this together. But if the girls were already this against the boys over a misunderstanding, then she had a lot of work ahead of her.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she turned to the sound of rushing feet behind her. Jaune and the rest of the guys sprinted towards her.

"Your tardiness is excused, take a position on the pads," she said quickly and stepped out of their way. The boys each muttered a thanks as they rushed past her and took a spot at the vacant pads.

"Now that we're all here, we can proceed with initiation," she announced loudly so everyone could hear her. "Since we're running a little late I'll keep this short. The pads you're all standing on will launch you all into the forest below. Once on the ground, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years. From there, there is an abandoned temple in the forest to the east. You and your partner are to head there, retrieve an artifact, and return here. Once you return, your initiation will be complete and later today you will be assigned into teams. Cooperate with other students if you can and kill everything else in your path. Good luck."

Suddenly, to every student's shock, they started getting launched. Every one of them was flying in the air within three seconds. Oznia took another sip to hide her chuckling. The students always made funny sounds when the catapults caught them off guard. She may have been the headmistress of the most prestigious huntress academy, but that didn't mean she couldn't take joy in the small things.

* * *

Despite being technically honorably discharged, Gabriel Angelos still considered himself a soldier of the Atlas military. The training and experience he gained from his time there would stick with him and he knew he would recall those experiences to help him through his life. But as he lay face down in the dirt, he wished there was something that would've helped him with being launched 400 feet into the air and off a cliff.

Gabriel got up and dusted the dirt off his armor and hair, now regretting not taking his helmet with him. He gave himself a quick check and his body felt fine if only a tad bit sore that faded away quickly. A fall like that would normally kill a person, but thanks to aura he was perfectly fine. Despite some lessons and training from Chambers Ironwood and Winter Schnee, aura was still a bit alien to him, but he wasn't complaining.

His Atlesian standard issue pulse rifle was still strapped to his body and his chainsword was still folded up on his. Seeing no problems, he marched forward. He walked for a few minutes towards the objective, but then he quickly did a 180 and was on his knees with his rifle shouldered. He heard the sound of rustling foliage.

"Hello?" he called out. He heard the rustling again. "If anyone's there, you have three seconds to respond or I will open fire!" Not three seconds past before he heard a heavy footstep followed by growling.

Gabriel immediately fired a burst of dust based rounds through the foliage. As he stood and continued firing, the growls of the Grimm turned into roars and they charged him. Several Beowolves fell with just their heads popping out through the shrubbery. He gunned down the others that got through but the Beowolves were many in number and were closing on him fast.

Gabriel gunned down as many as he could, but when one finally got to close he threw the gun at it to throw it off balance, brought up his chainsword, and started revving it up. He charged forward and slashed the closest Grimm's head off. Another charged but Gabriel held his revving sword in a defensive stance, letting the monster throw and itself against the moving, roaring barbed metal teeth before cutting another one in half.

Just two more Beowolves remained. But one was much taller than the other one and had more bone armor on its body. Gabriel wasn't sure if it was a Beowolf Alpha, but it definitely was the leader of the pact that was now down to two. The larger leader growled as it slowly circled around him, with the other Grimm circling in the other direction. Gabriel stated backing, knowing that letting one out of his sight and letting himself get flanked was a bad idea.

Suddenly, a rapid burst of gunfire erupted and the lesser Beowulf fell down dead. Gabriel and the leader Grimm turned to see Rost Kaitse. The larger Grimm roared and charged him. Rost shot what we could before changing his weapon into a battle axe and engaging the beast. Gabriel took this opening to run and grab his pulse rifle. The Grimm roared in pain and fell to its knees as four shots pierced its back. Rost then got the killing blow but embedding his axe in the monster's skull.

Rost and Gabriel paid no mind to the Grimm bodies decomposing into a black mist as they scanned the area to make sure that was the last of them. "Thanks," Gabriel said as he jogged to his fellow comrade. "Even though you're wearing goggles, I assume we're partners?"

Rost took a moment to move his goggles aside and make eye contact. "Indeed it is, Gabe," Rost replied.

"My name is Gabriel," he said.

"Gabe is easier and faster to say," Rost replied as he switched his weapon back. Gabriel wanted to argue against it but decided that a small disagreement like that could wait. "East is that way, correct?"

"Indeed, let's get moving." Gabriel and Rost started walking side by side.

"You know I was actually about to ambush that pack," Rost said.

"Oh?"

"Had a shot lined up on the pack leader and everything, but then you came along and startled them."

"Sorry for ruining your ambush."

"Eh, we killed them all so no harm done." They continued walking for a few more minutes. "You're actually good in c.q.b. I thought you Atlas Troopers just relied on your fancy guns and mechs."

Gabriel hummed with a smile. "And you're a decent shot for a Vacuoian."

"Well one of us has to be," Rost let out a small chuckle that showed he was smiling behind the mask.

Not even an hour into initiation and Gabriel believed he already made a genuine friend. Chambers would be happy. He glanced at Rost once more, specifically his chest armor. "You going to add two more tally marks?"

"Hmm?" Rost turned his head to him.

"Those two Grimm you killed, you going to add more tally marks on your armor for them?"

Rost was quiet for a moment. "These tally marks… aren't the record of my Grimm kills."

"Oh… those are the number of people you killed them." Gabriel stated more than asked. Rost nodded. "You said that you were from Rodnia? That's in the south-eastern part of the kingdom correct?"

"Yeah, why?" Rost asked, his voice hinting that he was surprised at the casual tone in his voice.

"I hear that that area has a high concentration of bandit tribes and attacks," He explained. "Not saying I'm hating you for killing scum like that, I would be a hypocrite if I did. But I am curious as to why you tally them on your armor."

"I-" there was the sound of dust discharge and falling trees, followed by a scream in the distance. "Story later."

"Agreed," Gabriel took point as they both rushed towards the sounds of battle.

* * *

Shadow circled around the Deathstalker, using the speed provided by his grav-shoes, and flipped the dust cylinders on his bracelets and hurled a blast of fire dust at the Grimm. It recoiled and roared in pain, dropping Jaune in the process.

"Thanks!" He called out and quickly got to his feet.

"Just keep moving and I'll try to slow it down!" Shadow shouted as the Deathstalker was now spinning and hitting randomly all around itself in an effort to get him, but Shadow was too fast and dodged them all.

Shadow really hadn't been having the best day. It wasn't the worst but it could have been better, especially with the fiasco at the locker room. He then ended up coming across Jaune Arc and becoming his partner. Not that he didn't like him, but he wasn't his first choice. Rost and the Atlesian at least looked like they knew how to fight, while Jaune looked like a wannabe knight.

Though to be fair, Shadow had to admit Jaune was at least able to hold his own, to some degree. He found the blond boy up against an Ursa pack, and despite not being as aggressive as one should, he held his own, blocking and dodging attacks and striking efficiently when he could. But he was sluggish compared to others he's seen before. Shadow then made his presence known and mingled into the fight.

Jaune basically became a stationary anchor while Shadow practically danced his way around the Grimm, getting quick strikes with his dust and retractable claw blades against those distracted by Jaune and leading those attentive to him alone to get flanked by Jaune. The Ursa pack fell after minutes of fighting and the two became partners.

They then came across a cave entrance which Jaune theorized to be the temple. They entered and unfortunately were wrong when they encountered a very large Deathstalker at the end. The foolish knight even mistook its glowing Stinger for a weapon. Shadow was looking a different way at the time and couldn't warn him in time. Jaune got stuck on its tail as it chased them out, and when it burst through the cave entrance that was just too small for it, Shadow saw how much bigger of a threat it really was.

It was a King Deathstalker. It stood taller than a normal one, had thicker armor, and had curved spikes on his legs and at the edges of it armor plates. It was a fight they knew they couldn't win on their own.

"Shadow, we got Beowolves!" Jaune shouted from behind some trees.

"Damn it!" Shadow barely dodged a lunge from the Grimm's stinger. "Can you tak- ah!" The Grimm got in a good swipe with its claw and sent him flying, into a large tree branch. Shadow rubbed his head and soon the tree started shaking as the Deathstalker repeatedly rammed into the thick tree, it's stinger unable to reach that high of an angle as it jabbed holes in the trunk.

Shadow took a breath and tried to jump off to the next tree, but lost his footing when the King Deathstalker hit the tree again and sent him falling to the ground. He stuck the landing and just barely managed to dodge a swipe from a Beowolf. Before Shadow could retaliate, the Atlesian rammed his shoulder into the beast and shot it dead in its neck.

"You good Shadow?" he asked.

"Yes, thanks," Shadow nodded in thanks. There was an impact sound and they both quickly moved to dodge Rost's flying body.

"Ow," he groaned in the dirt.

"You ok?" Shadow ran and offered him a hand.

"Yeah," Rost accepted the help up. "I thought aura was supposed to numb all pain."

"Not initially no, especially if you're taken off guard. I can offer some advice later of you want."

"Thanks Gabe."

"It's Gabriel."

Ah, Gabriel. That was his name.

"Hey guys!" Jaune yelled running up to them, the King Deathstalker not far behind. "Beowolves are dead but we still got the big guy! Help!" Jaune then came into view running away from the much large beast.

The three sprung into action. Shadow used his speed to his advantage, circling around the Grimm while trying to hit at any cracks in the armor with his metal claws and fire dust. However, he was ineffective, as the few cracks he could find were too small to allow him to do any damage. All he really was doing was annoying the Grimm, but making him occasionally focus its attention on him to give the others a shot at causing damage.

Glancing whenever he could, Shadow could see that the others weren't faring any better. Its armor was just too thick, they couldn't pierce it. It then dawned on Shadow that the King Deathstalker was probably playing the waiting game. They only had a finite amount of aura, and once that gave they were done. The Grimm was just buying its time.

"Nothing's working!" Rost shouted. As he barely deflected a swipe from the Grimm's claws.

"Might I suggest a retreat?" Gabriel blocked a claw swipe with his oversized shoulder pad and countered with his chainsword.

Shadow checked his gaunt roulettes and saw he still had some steam dust left, not much but enough. "I can make us a smoke screen!"

"Do it and run through the trees on the left side!" Jaune shouted.

Shadow spun the dials and summoned aura to his hands to use the dust. A large puff of smoke filled the area and Shadow and the others fled opening in the trees. They could hear the King Deathstalker stomping and thrashing in the smoke in confusion.

"Everyone ok?" Jaune asked. Everyone responded with a small mutter.

"Now what do we do? We can't do jack shit against it, but if we run the bastard will just end up finding and hunting us down," Rost said.

"But we will have the chance of running into other initiates that could help us," Gabriel said.

"Unlikely," Shadow shook his head. "We all were thrown all over the place so the chance could be very slim." Shadow turned to Jaune, and noticed his head moving around and his eyes twitching all over the place. "Jaune?" He got no response. "Jaune?" He said a little louder, and this time Jaune paused and looked at him. "You alright?"

"Are you panicking?" Gabriel asked.

"No no, I'm just..." Jaune paused and looked around again. "I think I have an idea."

Jaune then quickly explained his plan. Shadow had to admit it sounded like a very stupid plan, but it was all they had for the moment.

* * *

The forest grounds where the initiation was taking place had several hidden cameras for the professors to watch the student's progress on their scrolls. Glynda Goodwitch watched the boys huddle together before parting ways. She couldn't hear what was being said but a plan was obviously being played out.

Glynda honestly couldn't help but feel nervous. A King Deathstalker wasn't a light threat. The other students would have trouble fighting one with their lack of experience but would still succeed. But those young women had years of aura and combat training, the boys only had months.

She was honestly worried for them, yet Headmistress Oznia had calmly told her to wait and have faith. Glynda worked with Oznia for a long, long time. She learned never to question her judgment on situations and decisions like this, but she couldn't deny her doubts right now.

Shadow and Jaune ran back to the King Deathstalker now that the smoke cleared, but Rost and Gabriel ran in the opposite direction and…started chopping down a tree? What? They stopped just before the cut was all the way through the trunk. They both then ran out into the open, Shadow and Jaune disengaged the King Deathstalker, and Rost and Gabriel started firing at the Grimm.

Glynda thought she had the plan figured out: they planned to lure it over and then drop a tree on it. But the tree was nowhere large enough to do any damage to a Grimm that big and armored. The lads should have known this… what were they doing?

Rost and Gabriel then retreated when the King Deathstalker got to close, but when it turned to go after them, Jaune cut the last of the wood to complete the cut and Shadow punched forward, sending a blast of air dust forward and knocked the tree down. It fell just in front of the Grimm and was angled like a ramp. The King Deathstalker couldn't stop in time as he ran into the downed tree lopsided and fell to the side on its back.

The boys then immediately jumped on it and started slashing and shooting at the exposed unarmored flesh on the upper half of its body, its legs and claws thrashing in pain with each cut and bullet before finally going limp. With its body disintegrating, signaling its death, the boys jumped off and Glynda could help but give a small smile as the boys started celebrating their victory.

"They did it," she muttered.

"Did you doubt them Miss Goodwitch?" Oznia said from her side, watching the same display from her scroll.

"I thought they would have escaped and let us send a professional team to deal with it later. The fact they thought of a plan to kill it as quickly as they did, and how they did it, is what surprised me." Glynda dodged the question, not wanting to admit she was wrong in doubting them. But she was glad she was wrong.

"The youth always find interesting and new ways to deal with problems We can learn a lot from them. Now let's check how the other initiates are doing." They did so in relative silence.

* * *

 **A/N** : _And that's a wrap._

 _Big shoutout to Austin Ga Kill for his support and contribution to this story (sorry you don't get to mess with the A/N today buddy)._

 _Fun fact: that locker room fiasco was actually inspired by an event that happen while I was in 5th grade. We were too young to start changing clothes for gym class so we just just left our books and stuff in the locker rooms. But when a pipe burst, the buys had to put their stuff in the girl's locker room. There was some comotion from that and the girls were mad… good times._

 _I also would have had Shadow use smoke dust, but according to the wiki steam dust is canon but there's no mention of smoke dust… but hey, steam is still kind of like smoke._

 _For the next chapter I'll just gloss over the rest of the initiation, no need to drag it out longer than it needs to be or go over events that have been covered hundreds of times over in rwby fanfiction._

 _So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Think something can be improved? Want to give me a moral boost? Leave a review, all criticism and feedback is welcomed and encouraged._

 _Thanks for reading, have a great day :)_


	4. Team ARGN

**A/N** : _Hey everyone. 2 quick notes before we begin._

 _ _1- I started an academy on the Amity Arena game. It's for Mistral and its called 'DrunkenMarriage'. Join if you like... please do, I'm so lonely.__

 _2- Remember in the last chapter when I said my creative writing professor allowed me to turn in that chapter for a final grade? I ended up getting an A on it, really good morale booster._

 _Alright, let's get to why you're here._

 _Here's chapter 4. Enjoy :)_

* * *

"-will form... team Juniper," Oznia said as 'JNPR' appeared on the screen above them. "And they will be led by Joan Arc." Like before, the auditorium gave a round of applause at the announcement of the team and its leader. Jaune was clapping the loudest and gave Joan a big, proud smile when he made eye contact with her.

Oznia gave the girls a nod signaling them to step down. "And now, last but not least... Jaune Arc. Gabriel Angelos. Rost Kaitse. Shadow Nahk." The boys made their way up on the stage as their names were called. While everyone in the crowd started losing attention as the team assignment ceremony dragged on, everyone now gave their full attention when the boys were called up.

They stood side by side up on the stage in the order that they were called in. Like with the other teams, the screen on the stage behind them displayed their names, an image of them, and their personal emblems.

Jaune had the duel crescent arc, the symbol used by his family for generations. Joan also had the emblem on her mask.

Gabriel's emblem was golden chainsword with blue wings, the insignia of the unit he was stationed with before coming to Beacon. It can be seen on his left shoulder guard.

Rost's emblem was a yellow rifle and sickle crossed together in a red star. It's a tradition of Rodnia to use the weapons of their parents for their emblem. It was on the front of his helmet.

Shadow's emblem was a red and black spiral with four spikes on the top and one on the bottom, curved to the right. This emblem could be seen on the back of his jacket.

"The four of you retrieved the black pawn pieces. Henceforth, the four of you shall form… team Argon." The screen went blank and displayed 'ARGN' for all to see. "And you will be lead by Jaune Arc."

Jaune didn't know what surprised him more; the fact that he was made team leader, or that everyone started giggling when Shadow huffed and said 'damn it' as he handed Rost some lien. Oznia nodded and the lads left the stage.

"I'm proud of all of you for passing your initiation. This is just one step on the long journey ahead of you. It will be a difficult road to travel, but keep up the cunning and skill you displayed today and I'm sure you'll some of the finest huntress and huntsmen this world has ever seen. Within a few moments, we'll send you all a message on your scrolls about your dorm arrangements and class schedules. Uniforms and your luggage have already been delivered to your dorms. Until tomorrow, your time is yours. Take care."

* * *

Rost laid back on his bed, arms behind his bed as he relaxed. After getting their armor and weapons stored in their lockers, they went to their dorm and unpacked their things. There was surprisingly little fan fair with that, but it wasn't a problem. They took their beds in the order of their team acronyms. Not on purpose though, that's just the order their luggage was set when they arrived and no one questioned it.

After they settled in the rest of his team went out, either to get food or meet Jaune's sister he forgot which. They offered him to join them but he declined, under the excuse of just wanting to relax. In actuality, he wasn't sure if he could handle the attention so he just quickly went cafeteria and got something to bring back to the dorm. Even with how fast he was, the stares and glares sent his way and the whispering he heard made him uneasy. He even saw the beret girl from the firing range yesterday lower her glasses and eye him. He saw the look she had in her eyes once before...

Oznia was the only one who didn't make him uneasy thus far, and that was because of how fondly his mother spoke about her when she described her time of Beacon long ago. That thought made him realize he didn't speak to his parents since he left Vacuo. He then pulled out his scroll and dialed his mother.

It rang and then went straight to voicemail. He called again and got the same result. He figured she was busy and went to call his father when he got an incoming call from her. He answered and was met with the sight of a woman in a face mask and camo-net hood. Anyone else would feel intimidated at the sight, but Rost could see the happiness that shone in her eyes.

" _Sweety!_ " The woman cheered as she pulled the mask and hood down, revealing her smile and brown hair. " _I was wondering when you would call!_ "

"Hey mom," Rost returned the smile. "And you could have called too you know."

" _I was going to later today actually, I didn't want to interrupt anything important or your initiation. How did it go?_ "

"It went better than I thought. I… mom, is that smoke?"

" _Hmm?_ " She looked behind her. " _Oh right. Forgot to mention you called as we just finished repelling a bandit attack near the oasis._ "

Rost tensed up, but only slightly. Bandits in that part of Vacuo weren't exactly uncommon, but that didn't mean they weren't dangerous. "How big?"

" _Just barely a dozen strong, nothing too serious except that two of them had huntress training and weapons._ "

"Huntresses?"

" _Pfft, they wish they were,_ " She rolled her eyes. " _Even if they were, they'd make terrible hunters. True hunters-_ "

"Always watch where they step," he finished.

" _I taught you well. I mean seriously, I feel like I don't even have to camouflage the boobytraps anymore._ " They both saw a pop up showing that his father wanted to join the call, voice only, and both accepted.

"Hey dad."

" _Son, good to see you again,_ " a soft, gravelly voice said. " _Honey, I'm going to need you to tilt your head to your left._ " His mother did so. Rost then heard a bang and see a tracer whiz past his mother's head. He then heard a soft, dying scream. " _That bandit was still alive, her hand was an inch closer to her knife from when I last checked._ "

Even when he saw it done dozens of times, he was still amazed at his father's eye for detail like that. " _Thanks babe,_ " his mother said.

" _That was the last of them, but more could be nearby. I'll be on overwatch, hurry back._ "

" _Ok,_ " his mom's signal switched to voice on and he heard her start jogging. " _So as I was asking earlier, how has Beacon been so far?_ "

" _I'm curious as well. How are things?_ " his father asked. Rost then began to tell them about the past two days.

* * *

Shadow sat cross-legged on the rooftop, holding his scroll in hand.

"I'll be honest, I had doubts about the plan, but I'm also surprised that it worked."

" _That sounds about right,_ " Rouge replied on the other end. " _Take note of it, sometimes it's the stupid ideas that are the most effective. So it's right up your alley._ "

"Screw you too," Shadow shook his head, the edge of his lip curled up slightly as his aunt chuckled. "I want a new aunt."

" _Good luck with finding someone who would deal with your shit. They would have kicked you out the moment you went through your edgy emo phase._ "

"Please don't remind me," Shadow sighed.

" _Never,_ " she replied teasingly. " _I am happy to hear that Beacon is going well and that you're getting along with your team. Just keep it up and I'm sure you won't have any problems._ "

"I already have some," Shadow said. Her smile dropped instantly. "Rouge, Blake Belladonna is here. She's a new student as well."

" _Oh. That's… hmm,_ " she cupped her chin in thought, but Shadow picked up on the tone in her voice.

"You knew she was coming here, didn't you?" he accused.

" _I knew from Ghira that she was joining a huntress academy, but I had no idea it would be Beacon. Oznia made no mention of that to me at all._ "

Shadow pondered that for a moment. "I believe you. But Oznia knows what our history with them is. Why didn't she mention that to us?"

" _It was possible she was hiding it out of fear that you wouldn't come to Beacon if you knew._ "

"So she purposely withheld it from us? She lied to us?"

" _I wouldn't say she did on the second part. She wouldn't withhold it from us if it was a threat to us. She probably saw no danger and it slipped her mind… well, that or she didn't know Blake was going there because she just skimmed through most of the paperwork as usual._ "

"That doesn't sound proper of a headmistress of a huntress academy."

" _You'd be surprised, Shadow,_ " Rouge chuckled.

Shadow shrugged and accepted his aunt's words as truth. "Well, just because Oznia didn't see anything doesn't mean Blake would try something."

" _That's true, but what's the worst thing Blake can do to you? Outside of one-on-one antagonistic chastising that is? Nothing. Blake's a smart girl, she wouldn't do anything stupid._ "

"I believe you also once said that even the smartest people can make stupid decisions," Shadow countered. "But I guess you're right. I don't like it, but I'll try."

" _That's all I ask. Thank you Shadow,_ " her smile came back. " _Don't hesitate to call me if you need something._ "

"I will. I'll talk you to you later." Shadow then hung up and put his scroll again. He turned around and went to the door to head back inside but stopped halfway. He stood at attention and concentrated on the area around him. He swore something was there but didn't hear or see anything, but he had a gut feeling that he was being watched and he knew who it most likely was.

"I know you're there," he called out. "I also know you definitely eased dropped on my call. Let bygones be bygones?" He waited for a minute, and then a little longer. Nothing. He then made his way to the door, but right as he was about to go through it he heard something behind him.

He snapped and saw nothing but a crumpled up paper ball. He picked it up and unwrapped it.

' _Bygones be bygones. But I don't trust you. Try anything and I won't hesitate to bring you down._ '

"Well, at least we see eye to eye on something," Shadow muttered as he pocketed the note and went inside.

* * *

Gabriel Angelos squeezed the trigger again and again, sending rounds down range. He decided to spend part of his evening at the range Rost mentioned. The range provided dummy rubber rounds that were reusable, so sparing ammo for target practice wasn't a problem.

Unfortunately, he was becoming frustrated. During initiation, he noticed that some of the Grimm moved faster than what he was used to from training and on the field in Atlas. He selected a program with fast moving holographic targets with small crosses that symbolized weak points and only shots on those would count. With each session he averaged 90% accuracy on the large targets, but only averaged 30% on the weak points. He honestly felt embarrassed with such a poor performance, only glad that the accuracy scores were sent privately to his scroll so the other girls here couldn't see it.

It made him think on the King Deathstalker fight. Only Jaune's quick thinking got them to expose the Grimm's soft underside and got them to kill it. The large Grimm did have weak points, soft spots in its armor. It had to, he just couldn't find and hit them. That wouldn't bold well in the future. Should they come across another higher tier Grimm, it was almost a certainty they wouldn't be in the same situation nor would it be likely to be alone. They could get beaten back, maybe even take casualties.

Gabriel would admit he didn't see as much combat up close and personal as he would like. He still saw combat, but today would mark only the fifth time the enemy was close enough for him to draw his chainsword. His squad never took casualties, but it didn't mean he didn't see them. He saw fellow soldiers shot down by White Fang and bandits, cut down and torn apart by Grimm, and other sights that didn't haunt him as much as they should.

He supposed he had Chambers Ironwood to thank for that last part. The General's wife had been the closest thing he had to a mother figure, and she was the one to teach him the basics and train him with his aura. Chambers was the one that comforted him when the horrors and stress from what he did and saw got to him. Not to discredit James Ironwood in any way. He helped train him and got him back up on his feet after tough times, but Chamber stopped him from stooping down further.

Forgetting his current frustration, Gabriel's thoughts turned to the Ironwoods and some of the times he spent with them. He owed a lot to them. They practically raised him… correction, they did raise him. The provided him with food, a home, and taught him everything he knew.

He recalled something Chambers told him while sparing: ' _I know what it's like to be frustrated, it's hard not to be in this profession. But one thing I learned is that trying to brute force through something while frustrated won't work. You'll just keep messing up and getting angrier because of it. In training like this, it's best to just back away, figure out what you're doing wrong, and then come back later. It'll take more time, but you'll get significantly better._ '

Gabriel slung the rifle over his shoulder and went to head back to his dorm. When he reached the door to the armory, someone else, a faunus student with horns student, bumped into him.

"Sorry," he apologized. She muttered something in a low growl and kept walking. Gabriel just shrugged and kept walking. But then a thought crossed his mind. When the faunus came through the door, she seemed to move closer into his path. He turned back to look at her and something caught his eye.

There was bubbly saliva on his shoulder pad, right on his symbol. Someone spit on him, and it didn't take him long to figure out who as he looked behind him. He caught the faunus's glare before she turned back and continued forward.

"Great," Gabriel muttered, shaking his head and leaving. Disrespect like that would have brought on punishments back in Atlas, official and vigilante justice from the troops, and Gabriel had the justification and want to confront her. But he didn't. She looked like an older student and thus was most likely known to others around the school and others in the range. Should he confront her, he'd have the disadvantage and could have the whole situation turned against him with a few choice words.

She won, for now. At least Gabriel now knew to avoid her for the time being. He'll think of what to do about her later.

* * *

Jaune's time at Beacon was going well so far. His sister was supportive and there for him, and proved that he could and did kill a lot of Grimm, and his new teammates were pretty awesome. They seemed to get along and settling their dorm business was actually pretty easy.

And none of them snored when they slept! It was a miracle!

However, it was during the morning when they were getting ready that Jaune found a problem with Beacon.

"Still having trouble?" Shadow asked from his bed.

"Gah!" Jaune groaned in frustration as he failed to tie his tie… again.

"Alright, I can't stand seeing you suffer anymore," Gabriel sighed. "Here, let me help you." He stood and walked up to Jaune. It what took Jaune five minutes of failed attempts, he got done in a few seconds.

"Thank you. How'd you do that so fast?" Jaune asked.

"Ties are part of our parade uniforms. They practically dedicated a whole week to make sure we could dress properly."

"Wait, seriously?" Rost's head tilted to the side.

"Well, not a whole week, just one class every day for a week. But you get the idea," Gabriel replied.

"Good, would have hated to hear that my taxes paid for soldiers to play dress up," Shadow remarked.

"You don't pay taxes, you don't get to complain."

"So, you're not denying we pay for you soldiers to dress up?" Rost chimed in.

"Just like how you're denying that everyone seeing your face beat in before our first class starts is a bad thing."

"How about we don't beat eachother up before breakfast," Jaune chimed in. "If one does break out, I'm siding with Gabriel." The two of them then shared a brofist.

"Wow, you'd turn on your own?" Rost fainted a gasp.

"I feel so betrayed," Shadow placed a hand on his forehead, his bored expression still present on his face.

"My youngest sister is a better actor than you." Jaune then checked his scroll. "We have some time before class, want to go get some breakfast?" With a unanimous vote of 4-0, they went down to the cafeteria.

Moments after they walked through the doors, the sound of conversations that filled the air simmered for a while but soon picked up again. Jaune and the rest of his team continued to small talk with one another, but each of them knew what was happening in their surroundings.

They were now the talk of the hour, especially among the upper year students who were seeing them in person for the first time. Most of the girls eyed them with curiosity, some seemed to blush or smile and look away, others looked with less positive vibes. Jaune noticed a girl, behind them in line, with a beret lowered her sunglasses as she checked him out. He would have felt flattered, but the much taller and muscular girl standing behind her glaring with a neutral expression and a raised, challenging eyebrow, intimidated Jaune and made him look away.

Though the boys took notice of similar things, no one said a word about. They were just content with their small talk unless someone came up to them. No one did though, but they weren't really complaining. The line went rather quickly and team ARGN got their trays of food.

"Hey, little bro! Over here!" They all turned to see Joan waving them over to her table where she was sitting with seven other girls, including Ruby. Jaune led the way as the rest followed suit. Whether he noticed it or not, he paid no mind to how his team lagged behind him by a few steps. As he approached his sister's table, he did notices that the black haired girl seemed a little nervous and the white haired girl seemed to scoff at them, but the others seemed curious and thrilled to see them come over.

Jaune may have been a little intimidated, he didn't exactly have a good social track record back home. However, this was a new school with new people many miles away, and Joan was here to have his back. He was still a little uneasy, but felt like things would be alright.

* * *

 **A/N** : _And there we have it._

 _I feel bad for cutting it off there, but ARGN's first interactions with RWBY and JNPR just fit and flow better with what's happening in the next chapter. Speaking of, after chapter 4 we'll start skipping ahead a bit to the juicy and important stuff._

 _Also, quick trivia:_

 _-If you look at the cover art, you can see the letters in in the corners spell out ARGN_

 _-After thinking I was being original, it turns out that Argon is actually the 18th element on the periodic table_

 _-Yes, I did just basically made Rost's parents Glaz and Kapkan, I couldn't resist (might add Tachanka and Finka later on)_

 _-Rost's emblem is a play on the USSR's symbol_

 _-Shadow's emblem is the icon from his 2005 video game_

 _Let me know what you think in the reviews, all criticism is welcomed. And thanks again to AustinGaKill for betaing, idea bouncing, and for coming up with Gabriel's emblem; and to Kc4229 for betaing and being a bro._

[Austin _\- I actually did_ things!] _(for once XD)_

 _Thank you for reading, have a great day :)_


	5. Combat Class

**A/N** : _Apologies to keep you waiting._ Here's _chapter 5 of Remnant's First Huntsmen._

 _I hope you enjoy_.

* * *

Having meals with teams RWBY and JNPR have become an unspoken norm for ARGN. Jaune wasn't initially sure about it, but since Ruby was his first female friend here and Joan was eager for him to socialize, he didn't see much negatives to giving it a try.

Teams RWBY and JNPR were nice girls. With the exception of an early bout with Weiss and Gabriel and Rost, everyone got along really well together, too well in Yang's and Joan's case. Both were older sisters, and part of that job entailed embarrassing their younger siblings. They didn't do much, but just enough to push their buttons.

Classes also were going remarkably ok so far. There weren't as many as he expected and some of those were shared with second-year students, which was odd but nothing out of the ordinary. Only two classes really stood out to him so far.

The first was Grimm Studies taught by Elizabeth Port, a woman in her 60s. She was a good teacher and got to the point, he just was a little confused as to why most of the time was spent with her recounting times of fighting the Grimm with her husband, Peter. The second was world history with Bartholomew Oobleck. He and many others were a little surprised to see a male teacher at a huntress academy but supposed it didn't matter since it wasn't a class directly teaching you how to fight Grimm or use aura. He just wished he didn't talk a mile a minute, it was hard to understand him at times.

The first week went by relatively fast. It was now Friday and the members of team ARGN were walking together to their last class of the day.

"So, what do you guys think combat class will be like?" Jaune asked.

"We learn about combat," Rost replied.

"Permission to hit him," Shadow asked.

"Denied," Jaune stated. "But seriously, what do you think we're doing in it? Combat tactics? Fighting Grimm in the forest?"

"If I had to guess, we'd be fighting one another," Gabriel spoke up.

"Wait, what?" Jaune gasped quickly.

"It makes sense. Even if it's not Grimm, it's common to practice spar with other personnel to keep our skills and wits up."

"Oh… huh…" Jaune didn't like that news. "That seems a little unfair, doesn't it? I mean, we each only had aura for like, what, a few months at most? And everyone else has had it for like years. How are we supposed to even stand a chance?"

"Gotta agree with Jaune on this," Shadow said as he looked to Rost and Gabriel. "Even if you two have had combat experience before, we can't hold a candle to aura training the others have. This is going to be entirely one-sided."

"I don't doubt that, but not as bad as you think," Gabriel said. "Sure, everyone else has a lot more experience than us, but we're not entirely helpless. Rost and I have years training and fighting experience, not with aura but still years of training. And I doubt you two stood idle these past few months."

"Yeah, I was put through hell by my mom and Joan."

"And I was too busy getting my ass kicked by my aunt," Shadow chimed in. "I wasn't saying we would give up, just pointing out that us fighting would have an obvious outcome."

Their conversation ceased as they opened the door and were met with a circular arena. Once again like every other class they had so far, all eyes turned to them for a moment and the members of Team ARGN became the topic of gossip and whispers. The boys weren't bothered or reacted to it, they got used to it over the course of the week. Same as before, they took seats near team JNPR and team RWBY arrived soon afterward.

A minute later, all conversation stopped when Glynda Goodwitch entered the room and stood on the platform. She adjusted her glasses before addressing the class. She gave a short introduction to the Combat Theory Class and explained what it was about. Essentially, everyone would fight in 1v1 duels to test their combat strengths and weaknesses, as well as to keep them on their toes and make sure they don't slack up. A screen then popped up and she activated an RNG roulette wheel and moments later it selected two students for the first fight.

Jaune closely watched their fight and every other one that happened. With each one, he couldn't help but feel a little more inadequate. Joan tried to help him with using his aura to enhance his natural strength and agility, and he can now wield his shield and sword like they weighed far less than they actually do. But this?

It was honestly amazing how fast the huntresses moved. He saw bouts exchange out all over the ring in a short time span. At one moment, he saw Yang get out what had to be a dozen punches in only a second. It was awesome, but also concerning. He knew his few months of training wouldn't hold a candle to everyone else's years of training, but the difference was already presented in front of him. Jaune figured he'd be lucky if he could last a minute.

"Alright class, we have enough time for one more fight," Glynda said as she activated the roulette wheel. The first was chosen. "Carlisha Winchester." And then the second. "And Rost Kaitse, enter the arena."

No one seemed to catch the slight confusion in her voice as every student turned their eyes to the huntsman in question, faces full of surprise and curiosity. Jaune shared the shock as he looked at his teammate. He had a small hope in the back of his mind that none of them would actually be called up due to how recent their aura was unlocked, but he guessed he was wrong.

"Welp, wish me luck," Rost muttered as he stood up and went to the ring. He took up position across from his opponent and looked her over. Carlisha Winchester was a few inches taller than him. She had a large mace with a dust crystal on the end. She only seemed to have shoulder, elbow, and shin pads connected to a golden bird plate over her breasts for protection. Other than that, she had leggings, a skirt, and a crop top that exposed her stomach.

Rost never understood why huntresses never wore much armor. Sure aura protected them, but still.

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you so this lasts more than a minute, " Carlisha taunted, earning a few chuckles and 'oooooo's from the crowd.

"Fine by me. If you're really that afraid of me that you can't stay by for a minute, I'll happily oblige," Rost taunted back as he adjusted the straps on his mask, earning a similar response from the students and a sneer from his opponent.

"Standard procedures as always, win either by lowering your opponent's aura or by ring out," Glynda reminded them. "Begin!"

Carlisha and Rost rushed towards one another the moment the word finished leaving the teacher's mouth. Right before they collided Rost ducked to the side, quickly shifting his weapon and opening fire. Carlisha was caught off guard and it took a second before she brought her mace up to block the bullets before swinging it down hard on him.

Rost rolled out of the way just in time as the mace got embedded into the floor. He quickly shoulder checked her before she could get the mace back up and started swinging his axe quickly at her. Carlisha dodged each slash send her way. When Rost overshot it and his axe blade hit the floor, Carlisha took the initiative and stepped on it to give her the momentum to give a powerful kick to Rost's head.

Rost went flying back and suffered another kick and punch to his arm and chest. He managed to block the next blow. The two engaged in a quick bout of fisticuffs. Rost was getting pushed back, but when Carlisha overextended a punch he seized an opportunity and grabbed her thick ponytail and yanked down hard.

Carlisha gave up her offensive to grab his hands to try and get him off and was met with several knees to her gut and an uppercut to her jaw. She landed on her back right next to her mace. She quickly recovered and retrieved her weapon. Rost saw this and dove for his own weapon, managing to retrieve it and just barely dodging a swing from her mace. He swung it up in a swing she blocked and the two found themselves up close in a fast-paced hack and slash duel.

Everyone in the audience gave their utmost attention to the fight below them. Every huntress was eager to see how a male with aura would fight, each thinking and displaying different thoughts and reactions as they watched.

The other members of Team ARGN watched the fight intensely as well. Carlisha was getting in more hits on Rost but he was holding his ground and hitting back, though most of his strikes were blocked.

Jaune silently cheered at Rost's progress in the fight. Though he wasn't winning, he wasn't losing. The fight and how Rost was doing was also giving Jaune a little confidence boost. If Rost is able to do it, then so could he. Maybe they weren't as outclassed as he initially thought.

Gabriel was mixed while he spectated the fight. On one hand, he saw some missed openings that he could have taken. But on the other, most anti-huntress training he received relied more on dodging and staying alive to escape more than defeating their opponent, not full on engaging the much stronger opponent. He could respect Rost for standing his ground, but the fight was more in Carlisha's favor than he initially thought.

Shadow knew the fight was lost the moment it started. He knew it, he knew Glynda knew it, he knew many other students knew it, but most importantly he knew that Rost knew that as well. He could tell that Rost knew by how he was fighting. He was fighting as if he knew he would lose so he was trying to cause as much damage as possible for others to take the opponent down. It was a style he was used to, except Rost didn't use dust nor did Rost have the mobility he did.

Rost got knocked back again and he had to readjust his mask to see. Because of this, he didn't see Carlisha quickly swap the dust crystal on her mace for a diffrent one. They charged each other again, but Carlisha smirked as she came to a dead stop and slammed her mace top first into the ground. A purple shockwave expelled in a radius around her. When it hit Rost he started levitating a few feet in the air.

"What the hell?!" Rost thrashed his limbs around to no avail. He opened fire but all it did was make him start spinning. After the first rotation, he saw Carlisha grip her mace like a bat and rush towards him. "Well, fuck." Not a moment later, Rost was sent flying into the wall with a loud thud and hit the ground face first.

A buzzer filled the air. "Carlisha Winchester wins to do ring out!" Glynda announced. Rost shook his head and glanced up at the main screen displaying their aura levels. Carlisha brought his aura down by just over 30%. He didn't even manage to bring hers down by 10%. Not unexpected in hindsight like Shadow said, but it was still a blow to his pride, especially when he overheard some huntresses in the audience comment about how quickly he was defeated.

After a quick check to make sure his weapon was in one piece, he and Carlisha walked to the center of the arena to face Glynda so she could critique their fighting strengths and weaknesses, just as she had with every other fight. Rost only half listened, he knew what was going to be said.

After that, they walked back to their seats. On the way back, Rost heard the crowd start to gossip again. It was easy for Rost to ignore, but one thing was getting to him. Carlisha's smirk. Her damn, smug filled, arrogant smirk. He didn't know why it was getting to him this much, but he kept his composure.

* * *

After the class ended, team ARGN went to the library to complete some assignments.

"What Carlisha used on me, was that a semblance or something?" Rost asked.

"No," Gabriel responded, "seemed more like gravity dust."

Jaune and Rost perked up at this. "Gravity dust?" The leader questioned.

"Is that a synthetic type, like how you combine water and fire to get steam?" Rost asked.

"Nope, it's natural," Shadow explained. "Gravity dust has… well, gravity manipulation properties. Land that has them levitates in the air, like the floating islands of Lake Matsu. I use them in my shoes to glide around quickly and Atlas uses them with their air fleet."

"Most of the ships yes, but that's not exactly a secret," Gabriel said.

"Wow, I really don't know anything, do I?" Jaune muttered.

"You say something?" Gabriel asked

"Not really. Just realizing how out of my element I am."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"I'm not really a people person, but I'll listen," Rost said.

Shadow let out a grunt.

"Not really. I already had this talk with my sister before initiation. Feels odd talking about it again."

"No, don't bring a problem up and then say you don't want to talk about it like an angsty teen," Shadow said.

"Yeah I had to deal with that with my sisters a lot, I see your point," Jaune chuckled. "I'm just having second thoughts about being here. I was always told a lot of stories of heroes and about my grandmother. I wanted to make a name for myself as she did. So when I did the impossible and got invited here, I was still nervous but excited nonetheless."

"And then reality about what this is really like set in?" Gabriel asked.

"Little bit, yeah. I mean it was a small thing, like seeing Ruby's skill despite her age and that whole locker room fiasco."

"Don't remind me," Shadow groaned. "I was this close to saying 'fuck it' and roasting them all."

"Well, thank you for not trying to kill them all. But still, it brings up the point. Besides JNPR and RWBY, we don't have a lot of friends here. People not liking us isn't the problem, it's just that many of them are viewing us negatively and the problems coming with it."

"Got to agree with that," Gabriel said. "It's not bad now, worst of it for me is some upper year faunus who spit on my armor twice this week. No idea what her problem is."

"If that happened back in Rodnia she would have got her ass beat," Rost said.

"Well if your match is anything to go by we wouldn't be able to lift a finger to them."

"Pretty much," Jaune said. "Just by looks alone, half of the school doesn't want us here, some more than others. And now that they know that we're not up to par… I'm just not looking forward to bullying again. It got so bad in middle school that Joan actually started ambushing them after school and beat them with sticks. After getting caught a few times she started using a mask for deniability. She uses it as part of her combat attire now."

That earned a few chuckles. "She single?"

"Wrong tree Rost. Also I'd have to kill you."

"Damn."

"Ok, getting back on track. So, we're all lacking in combat prowl and half of the school doesn't like us. What are we going to do about it?" Gabriel asked.

Jaune cupped his chin in thought. He could always ask Joan for advice, she would definitely be more than happy to help. But, he decided not to ask her. She wouldn't be around to help every time he needed it like she had been for the past 17 years. Besides, he was a leader now, time to start acting like one and solve the problem himself. "Well, I think I have one idea."

* * *

 **A/N** : _And there we have it._

 _Shorter compared to the previous chapters. But for what next happens, I felt this was a good cut off point so it would flow better. The next chapter will be longer, I promise._

 _For the rest of the fic, at least for the rest of the first act, I'll be jumping around several points to avoid filler and stay focused on the key points for the fic._

 _Let me know what you think in the reviews, I'm eager to know how I'm doing and how I can improve._

 _(_ Donkill _: I still think we should_ of _named her Carly.)_

 _(B: Carly is a name used for fem_!Cardin _several times before, wanted to be a little original)_

 _Also, I based Carlisha look on the artwork by Minacream._

 _Thank you for reading, have a good day :)_


	6. Training

**A/N** : _(looks at time since last update) Yeah, expect that to be the norm unfortunately. While I don't plan on having the gaps that long again, irl stuff is taking priority. I'm sorry._

 _Also, we now have new cover art for the fic, brought to us rainbow zebra23. Very special thanks to her for making it. Go check her stuff out on deviantart and tumblr._

* * *

As Headmistress of Beacon Academy, Oznia had many important tasks assigned to her. It was her responsibility to help train, teach, and prepare each new generation of Huntresses for their task of defending Remnant and her inhabitants from the creatures of Grimm.

It was a difficult task, mainly because of… publicly unknown factors she had to manage and task for. Though she considered herself fair, there were many cases where some students and individuals got more attention than others. Not out of personal bias, but because of their long term importance to her tasks at hand.

Such individuals are the members of Team ARGN, the first-ever huntsmen in the history of the world. Men having unlocked aura was still drawing speculation to many, but now most have accepted it as the fact that it is. This did draw many questions, the most common being how was such a thing possible.

Oznia did her best to satisfy their need for answers, giving them the same excuse that it was being looked into. Most accepted it but others persisted. She had to deny them all access to Beacon's grounds. She did not want to deal with mobs of reporters and news crews harassing her students and staff with questions. They didn't deserve or need to deal with that. Besides, Oznia wasn't a fool. She knew that not everyone who wanted to get close to the huntsmen was trying to do so with honest intentions. It was something she knew the young men would have to deal with, but she would delay that as long as she could.

Speaking of said young men, Oznia noticed them on the security feed and was observing them. The last room she expected any students to be in was the combat arena Glynda uses for her classes, especially on a Friday evening. Yet, the boys of Team ARGN have been there for the better part of the past hour.

The boys were sparring with one another in pairs of two. Every so often they would swap partners, and then briefly discuss a plan of attack before engaging with one another differently than they had previously. Oznia knew exactly what they were doing and why, and couldn't help but smile. However, after careful observation, Oznia could see a critical flaw with their sparring tactics. It was a flaw they wouldn't figure out on their own, so she decided she'll help them herself.

After a few minutes of walking, Oznia opened the door and entered the arena. Just as she saw on the security feeds earlier, Team ARGN was still here, armed and in the center of the room. This time, Rost and Gabriel were on one side while Jaune and Shadow were quietly conversing on the other.

"Alright," Jaune callout as he and Shadow departed, "We're good to go again."

"We're good here then," Gabriel called back as he and Rost readied their guns. The four members took up positions with each others partner on opposite sides of the arena. Jaune raised and held his hand up in a fist before pulling it down.

Rost and Gabriel immediately opened fire, Rost firing full-auto while Gabriel fired in controlled bursts. Jaune and Shadow hid behind the knight's shield as they slowly advanced forward. Despite his shield shaking under the constant barrage, Jaune mostly held his shield firm. Shadow crouched low behind Jaune, trying his best to avoid getting hit while selecting a certain vile of dust on his gauntlet.

Gabriel then started strafing in one direction, his rate of fire and accuracy remaining unchanged. Rost started strafing in the other, hip-firing and only caring that the bullets went in their direction. They were starting to circle him, and Jaune's shield couldn't block both directions at once.

Jaune shouted something Oznia couldn't quite catch from the gunfire. Shadow quickly brought up a head-high ice wall, cutting the three of them off from Rost. Jaune turned his shield back to Gabriel and charged while Shadow skated around to flank him. Gabriel alternated between them as best as he can, but when Shadow got behind him, he started firing with one hand while drawing his chainsword.

Shadow and Jaune closed the distance engaged in melee and hand to hand fighting. Gabriel was outmatched and was getting hit, but Rost finally crossed the ice wall and started firing on his partner's attackers. Jaune and Shadow jumped back to dodge, the later putting as much force as he could into his grav-shoes, drawing Rost's fire.

Jaune and Gabriel engaged one another and traded strike after strike, while Shadow skated around and fired a barrage of fire dust at Rost who was now on the ground and using the ice wall as cover and the melted holes as firing points. Both took any opportunity they could to fire on their opponent's sword wielder.

The fighting continued for just a little while longer. It ended when Rost fired at Shadow, tracking him during a high jump and ceased when he saw a few of his shots hit close to her on the arena wall. "Headmistress, Ma'am!" Rost shouted, causing the other three to stop and look up at her. "Sorry!"

Oznia offered a small smile. "It's quite alright Rost, none of those came anywhere near close to me. So, how are you boys doing?"

"Doing ok, I guess," Jaune shrugged. The other three offered similar answers as they holstered their weapons.

"What brought you here?" Gabriel asked.

"I was just taking a stroll through the school and happened to hear some commotion and decided to investigate," she answered. The boys were none the wiser to her lie. "May I ask why you four are here? Nothing wrong with it, but normally everyone is winding down at this hour."

"Well," Jaune started, "It's nothing really special. It just that over our time here, we've noticed we're… we-"

"We suck and everyone knows it," Rost said outright.

"To be fair it's just you that sucks," Shadow joked. No one laughed. "But, yeah, he's right on that."

"Even a child could see that we're under par compared to the others here," Gabriel said. "And there's little reason to doubt some are questioning the legitimacy of our attendance here." Oznia could see it in his eyes that he took that bit personally.

"So, we figured that the only thing we could really do is just try to better ourselves with extra training. To push ourselves further, you know?" Jaune asked rhetorically.

Oznia let her smile show. "I was watching you boys training for a bit, and I must say I am impressed with what I saw." None of the boys could hide their smiles and pride upon hearing that. Oznia meant it too. While the boys did get some fighting and aura training before coming to Beacon, they were still under par compared to the rest of the huntresses in their year. But that gap, while large, was slowly closing.

"But as proud as I am, I did notice one flaw in your sparing," this got the boys to drop their smiles. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, every team sparing has this problem and they rarely notice it. You lads are subconsciously holding back. I've noticed that some strikes don't have as much force or accuracy as you displayed before. In fact, just now, I've noticed Gabriel and Jaune pause for very short moments just now in their brawl."

Gabriel and Jaune Jaune looked a little guilty at that mentioning. "With due respect ma'am," the soldier spoke, "this is a practice run. It wouldn't do us any good if we suffered actual injuries."

"You are right on that, and it's good you all are cautious of one another's well being. However, you will improve only by a little, if at all, if you hold back."

"So you're suggesting we spar with other teams?" Shadow asked.

"While not a bad idea, I am not," Oznia said. "I do have a similar idea, however."

"What is that?" Jaune asked.

"I'm glad you asked that Jaune," Oznia said as she looked up at the monitors and saw their aura levels were in the mid to low orange range. As professional as she holds herself to be, she didn't stop herself from gaining a little wicked smile. Their faces went from confusion to shock as Oznia jumped from the railing and fully extending her cane. "Dodge."

The boys were quick to draw their weapons, but not fast enough as Oznia closed the distance and sent Jaune flying out of the ring's boundary with two strong hits, his weapons dropping to the floor where he once stood. She spun her cane blocking all of Gabriel's and Rost's shots before jumping to dodge a blast of ice dust. She closed the distance between Gabriel. She saw it coming and effortlessly swiped away his rifled as he threw it at her. Rapid taps to all of his limbs stunned him and brought him to his knees. A kick sent him out of the ring.

While Shadow sped around to flank her, her reflexes were faster and she blocked several punches before turning around to face him. Shadow then used his speed to his advantage and started striking at her from multiple directions. Rost held his fire, not wanting to hit his friend, and turned his weapon into an axe and rushed forward. Before he could make it, Oznia realized the pattern Shadow was using. A few placements of her cane in advance threw him off and gave her an opening to finish him off as she did with Gabriel.

She then turned to face Rost, who opposite of Shadow struck with slower but harder strikes. After a few seconds, instead of blocking it, Oznia let go of her cane and caused Rost's weapon to hit the ground. The wider arc left him vulnerable for the shortest time, which Oznia exploited. She hit him back and gave him quick strikes all over his chest and limbs before picking him up and tossing him behind her and out of the ring.

Oznia retracted her cane and holstered it as she looked back to the boys as they got back up. She looked up at the monitor and say that they all went into the orange. Maybe in hindsight, she shouldn't have hit them as hard as she did, but oh well.

"What the hell just happened?" Jaune asked stupefied.

"That was the Headmistress laying it into us," Shadow groaned as he rubbed his arm.

"Fuck me, she hits hard for an old bag," Rost grumbled.

"Yes Rost, go insult the woman that just kicked your ass 10 times sideways, smart move," Gabriel said as he was the first to recover. "Meh, I've had worse from James and Chambers… mostly Chambers."

"And they did good," Oznia said, turning her attention to them. "The training you all have does show." They looked a little skeptical at that. "I'm the Headmistress of the most prestigious huntress academy with ce-… a damn near long time's worth of experience. I've had more than my fair share of fights. I could floor any other team just as easily."

"Wait, is that why you don't want us to fight with other teams for training?" Jaune asked as he looked like he was catching on. "You want us to spar-"

"With me, yes," Oznia smiled. "Congrats on figuring it out that quickly, not many do. As you're headmaster, it is my job to make sure you all get the right knowledge and experience you need to successfully become humanity's defenders. If I have to personally train you all to do so, then so be it. And besides, I'm able to take anything even a 4th year team can throw at me with ease, so you don't need to worry about holding back against me."

"Are headmasters even allowed to fight with their students?" Shadow asked.

"In some cases yes," Gabriel said, "but it's not a secret that Headmistress Chambers Ironwood has tested a few teams from Atlas Academy. They later become specialists."

"So, favoritism but it's ok. I'm not complaining but is that legal?" Rost asked. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but still."

"It is perfectly fine, and not unheard of," she explained. "We do so to help train and test special and unique and gifted individuals that come to our schools." Her expression became more somber as she started slowly pacing back and forth. "Like it or not, the four of you are gifted and unique individuals just because of who you are. The first males in recorded history ever to unlock and use the power of your very souls. A lot of things are and will be expected of you all, and some if not many will try and exploit you for what you are for various means."

That last one gave the others pause. It was something that, in hindsight, seemed obvious. But with everything else going on, the thought never really came to their minds. Now that it did, they didn't know what to think of it.

"And as I said before, knowledge is learning, but experience is understanding. I don't just want you to know what you need to do to improve, I want you to understand what you must do. And the only way I can effectively do that is if I spare with you myself. That way, I can understand what you all can do well and what needs improvement."

Before any of them could usher a word, Oznia pointed her cane at ARGN's leader.

"Jaune Arc, your tactical and quick thinking during initiation and now during your team's last few spares show why you were made the team leader. However, your combat readiness and overall posture are lacking compared to the others… a lot more than I like, unfortunately."

Jaune made to argue, but Oznia moved quickly in front of the next team member and pointed her cane at him.

"Rost Kaitse. You are one of the few this year to have above adequate experience fighting other humans and faunus, yet I'm shocked you're making the rookie mistake of putting so much unnecessary power and energy into your attacks. All you're doing is slowing yourself down and leaving yourself vulnerable. "

She quickly spun around and pointed at the soldier.

"Gabriel Angelos. You're a soldier to the core, well-disciplined and well trained in Atlesian warfare. However, you are over-reliant on your teammates for support. Should you find yourself in an unfavorable situation, it's not just you who will be in trouble."

Recognizing the pattern, the faunus didn't recoil when the stick was in his face.

"Shadow Nahk. You have great control and understanding of dust for someone of your level. Impressive. But your strikes, while impressively fast, are basic and are in a pattern that is easy to deduce if your opponent isn't knocked out in within a few seconds. A pattern means predictability. Being predictable makes you easy to defeat."

She retracted her cane and took a few steps back to get them all in view. "There are many positive things I can say about what I saw, but we're not here for that. As of this moment, the biggest problems you have are on the individual level. Flaws with teamwork will be solved over time. After all, a machine is only as efficient as its weakest cog, and I plan on upgrading and greasing each cog in the machine."

The members of Team ARGN looked at one another, silently agreeing with her words with glances and nods. Oznia was glad to see that they weren't at thick-headed as other prized pupils in the past were.

"So w-"

"When do we start? … sorry," Gabriel asked and then sheepishly apologized when he realized he interrupted Jaune.

"Not today I'm afraid," Oznia said as she briefly glanced up at the aura monitors. "Given how all of your auras are now, there's not much we could do I'm afraid. However, would any of you be opposed to meeting up here every Friday... about the same time as now?"

"I'm ok with that. What about you guys?" Jaune said as he looked back at his teammates.

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea," Rost said.

"I'm fine with anything," Gabriel said.

"Eh, doesn't matter to me," Shadow shrugged.

"Excellent!" Oznia beamed up. "Now, I believe you all have done enough for today, go and get some rest." She didn't wait for a response and turned and left the training area.

* * *

"Are you certain?" General James Ironwood asked his friend. He, his wife, and agent Rouge were in a three-way video call with Headmistress Oznia.

"I am," she nodded. "Despite the boys' nature and location being public, Vale and the surrounding area has not seen any sort of unusual or increased Grimm activity of any kind."

"I can understand not increasing activity, but there haven't been unusual sightings?" Chambers Ironwood asked. "No differences in behavior? No new types or variations of Grimm spotted?"

"I would suggest that maybe he just hasn't heard the news yet, but then again that news has been the main topic of discussion around Menangire for a little bit now," Rouge chimed in. "If it's common talk here, then he definitely knows about them by now."

"I think even he knows its too early to try and make a move just yet. He's been careless before, but for important instances like this, even he wouldn't charge in blindly. He's biding his time, waiting for the right moment," Oznia said. No one looked to disagree with her. She, after all, knew and understood more about their enemy than they could only dream of.

"I don't like it," James said. "Even he can't have infinite patience. Whether he has all the information he needs or not, he will eventually make a move."

"Well, there's not much we can do in that regard except wait and react. I don't like it any more than you do," Rouge stated honestly.

"If there was a way to bait him into something that would give us the advantage, I would consider it. But even if the boys were better experienced than they are now, the risk would still too great," Oznia sighed. "I know none of you like it, but all we can do is wait and hope."

"Comforting," Rouge rolled her eyes. "You'll forgive me for worrying about my nephew's safety."

"I'd be concerned if you weren't. But please, rest assured that I have their safety and well being as one of my highest priorities."

"I would hope so," Ironwood inputted, but not in a mean spirited or antagonistic way.

"I agree, Oznia, if anything does happen to Gabriel I expect you to inform us immediately" Chambers added.

"Of course Mrs. Ironwood. On a different note, how is news of the men with aura being treated back home?" Oznia asked.

"There's been a lot of fanfare in Atlas," Chambers answered. "Gabriel is now a household spoken name across the kingdom. If it wasn't for my husband's and my standings, we would've been swarmed by reporters and the like constantly. We also, mysteriously, have become quite popular with Jaques Schnee and other notable politicians," she said with fake surprise.

"Really? I can't imagine why," Oznia played along.

"News of Gabriel being a soldier has also resulted in high morale across all branches of the military. I can't recall a time when spirits were this high," James remarked with a smile.

"Mistral has been about the same as Vale, but more doubt and skepticism on the settlements further from the pain city," Rouge said. "Shadow's name is also as popular in Menagere as Gabriel is in Atlas. Though, Shadow has also been the main topic of discussion among the White Fang, for obvious reasons."

The general's smile dropped almost immediately. "Are we going to have to worry about Sienna Khan as well?"

Rouge pondered for a moment. "I don't think so, no. It's already public knowledge they're at Beacon, Not even she is dumb or ballsy enough to try anything with the academies."

"Very well then. Is there anything else anyone would like to bring up or discuss?" Oznia asked. She waited several seconds, but no one spoke up. "Alright, you all are dismissed. Thank you all for your time, have a good evening and I'll contact you all soon." She then ended the call.

* * *

 **A/N** : _And there we have it._

 _The lads are getting extra training from Oznia and we get a little bit of foreshadowing of future events._ _Again, I'm sorry for the long delay from the last chapter, but other things are taking priority at the moment._

 _Let me know what you think in the reviews,_ _I'm eager to know how I'm doing and how I can improve._

 _(Don - hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and are looking forward to the next ones. Now if you will excuse me I got boxes to move, and a certain ship to convince Blaiseing on.)_

 _He's relentless I swear..._

 _Anyway, thank you all for your patience. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. Have a good day :)_


	7. Down Time

**A/N** : S _orry for the wait, other things took priority. Thank you AustinDonkill and Kcid4229 for their help betaing this chapter._

 _Anyway, here's the next chapter of Remnant's First Huntsmen._

 _Enjoy._

* * *

Oznia blocked Gabriel's chainsword with her cane while rapidly moving her other arm to deflect the stikes from Rost's axe. Shadow sped in from the front to deck her, so she quickly jumped high to avoid him. Her momentum carried her forward and she brought her foot down on Jaune. He raised his shield to block it.

The moment her foot connected, it and the shield were encased in ice. Jaune then dropped the shield, and thus herself, onto the floor as he and the rest of his team surrounded and drew and held their weapons above her.

Several seconds passed and nothing happened, the headmistress just laid there. "Truthfully, I was hoping one of you gentlemen would've come a little bit closer," she said as a smile formed. "Oh well." She then used her free foot to kick the shield, shattering the ice and sending it right into Jaune's face and quickly swept her feet, toppling the other boys over. She caught Gabriel's rifle midair and put a round into each of their chests before they hit the ground. Their aura blocked the bullet from penetrating their armor and clothes, but they each groaned at the force of the impact.

It was all over in just over a second.

"Ow…" Jaune held his head and slowly sat up. When did his shield get so dense?

"Are you alright?" Oznia asked as she helped Rost up since he was the closest.

"I've had worse," Rost said.

"I'm good," Jaune said.

"Not the first time I've been shot," Gabriel commented, gaining a worried look from Jaune.

"Were those shots really necessary?" Shadow asked.

"Nope," Oznia handed the rifle back to Gabriel, "just consider it a hard lesson. Let your guard down, and experience pain. Better to learn that here than on the field, where the consequences are more severe." The boys wanted to protest the excessiveness but couldn't think of a valid reason to. She was right, if you couldn't overcome your flaws in training then you couldn't do so in the field where you could get hurt or much worse. "I will say, that was a nice move with the shield and ice dust. I didn't expect that coming from you four," she complimented, raising their spirits a little bit.

"Thanks," Jaune said. "I thought about it when I noticed you always went after my shield like that, so I figured it could be a good trap for you."

"Not bad. But, now that you told, that strategy won't really work against me anymore since I know about it now," she stated.

"I-..." Jaune's smile drops as he realized what he just did. "Crap."

"Goddamnit Jaune, tell her all our secret plans while you're at it," Rost said in an obvious over-dramatic manner.

"I doubt it mattered," Gabriel chimed in. "Just doing it once told her what we can do, so now she'd be alert and more careful for it regardless."

"Gabriel is right," The headmistress said as she looked the boys over. "It is a good move for that kind of situation, but once you do it in combat once the other students will then be aware of it. You could still catch them off guard, but the chance of doing so would be low. Now, I believe we spared enough for today. Go and get some rest, you'll need it for tomorrow for the annual freshman trip to the Forever Falls forest," she reminded them.

"What are we doing on the trip?" Rost asked.

"The details of the trip are vague for a reason Mr. Kaitse. They change year by year. Just follow the instructions given and kill any Grimm you come across and you'll do fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have things to take care of," she said. The boys accepted that and said their goodbyes as she departed.

* * *

Gabriel Angelos headed over to Beacon's weapons foundry for weapon maintenance. He did so every few days and after a training session with his brothers in arms, or in this case with Oznia and the other student. It was a habit drilled into him since boot camp. Although it has never happened to him nor has he witnessed it first hand, stories of weapon malfunctions costing soldiers their lives stuck with him. Better safe than sorry.

If the huntresses in the forge were looking at and whispering about him, he didn't notice. We went over to an empty table and started field stripping his rifle. He carefully and precisely disassembled each part, cleaned off what little dust there was, and then reassembled it. Everything was in working order. He set it aside and brought up his chainsword. The chainsword was a bitch to clean. In addition to many more complex parts, the teeth were a nuisance to take apart and resharpen, but at least his aura stopped him from getting cuts all over his hands.

"Gabriel?" He turned around to see Ruby Rose standing behind him. "Hey Gabe," she greeted with a smile.

"Good evening Ruby," he greeted back. "How are you doing?"

"Ok, how about you?"

"Doing fine, thanks."

An awkward silence took over them. Ruby looked down and shuffled her foot, telling Gabriel that whatever she wanted to do, she didn't think it all the way through.

"So… just cleaning up your weapons?" she asked after a moment.

"Yes," he replied, suddenly remembering her fascination with weapons. "You wanted to look at my weapons, didn't you?"

"Yes!" Her smile beamed back up before faulting awkwardly. "If you don't mind that is."

He didn't mind it, but he was curious. "May I ask what for? Why are you interested in watching me take my weapons apart?"

"Well, I did the same thing with my sister, Weiss, Blake, and with team JNPR already. I like learning how everything works, and if something happens to their weapons I can help fix them… plus I kinda always wanted to see weapons of the Atlesian military."

Gabriel thought about that for a moment. Ruby had a good point with weapon maintenance, and his weapons were standard issue so it wasn't like there was something she couldn't see.

"I don't mind, just please don't touch anything unless I say you can," he said. Ruby beamed up and walked next to him to watch him work. She kept out of his personal space and ended up taking some notes while asking some questions here and there. He decided to go a little slower and take his time, and after he was done with his chainsword, he decided to go over his gun again just for her.

After a long period of time, he was done and put his weapons to the side.

"And that's it. So, what did you think?" He asked.

"That was pretty cool, thank you for showing me," she said and paused for a moment. "Hey Gabriel, before you go, can I ask you a question?"

He turned to her. "Sure. What's on your mind?"

"Have you ever thought about creating a new weapon for yourself?"

Gabriel pondered that for a moment. "No, can't say that I have. Why did you ask?"

"I was just curious. Every other huntress I know has a custom weapon made for them. Heck, I even made Crescent Rose all by myself," Ruby said. That last statement threw Gabriel off for a moment. Did she make that complicated weapon all by herself? If it was true, then he had a new respect for her.

"I can see the appeal in it, but I've been using mine for a long time now. If it ain't broken, don't fix or replace it, you know?" He countered. "What brought that on?"

Ruby looked away for a moment. "I was just thinking… one thing I like about weapons is that they are a way of expression. Each weapon and how they're crafted tells something about their owner. We put a little part of ourselves into them and they become a part of us. You get what I'm saying?"

"It's a personality and emotion expression thing, I get it," he said blankly, almost dismissive. It was something he heard from 'noble' huntresses more than occasionally and was always put off by how cocky they were about it and other things.

Ruby's smile dropped almost completely. "Pretty much yeah," Ruby looked at her feet awkwardly. "I just remembered I have a thing, sorry for bothering you, bye." Ruby left before he could utter a goodbye back.

"Crap." Gabriel knew he messed up. He didn't mean to offend her.

* * *

Shadow Nahk skated back to the main locker room to put his equipment away. With how much Oznia was laying it down on them, he wasn't sure if he was actuqlly improving with her training or not, but he'll keep trying regardless.

As he put his weapons and grav-shoes in his locker, he accidentally knocked over a glass vial of dust.

"Shit," he cursed when he failed to catch it. It thankfully didn't crack but rolled across the floor. As he walked to pick it up, someone beat him to it and held it up to him.

"Here," said the woman he really didn't want to see.

Shadow stared at the dust vial for a moment before reaching for it. "Thanks, Blake," he said blankly as he took the vial.

"Your welcome," she responded in kind as Shadow put it away.

He wasn't sure how he didn't notice her. Was she was following him? If so, it was concerning that he wasn't able to hear her. But then again, she didn't really have a reason to follow him, did she? She had to have already been in the locker room before she arrived then, that made sense.

Shadow went to leave the locker room, only to find Blake walking by his side. "Can I help you?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm heading back to my room. Our dorms are next to each other, are they not?" Blake responded.

"Ah… right," Shadow looked back ahead feeling a little bit embarrassed. But, he did have reason to be wary around her. Blake and himself didn't exactly get along and had some… disagreements the last time they saw each other before they joined Beacon Academy.

They continued walking down the hallway in silence. He was caught glancing at her as much as he caught her glancing at him. She was just as paranoid as he was. He didn't know if that was a good or bad thing, but as long as they didn't fight he didn't care.

"How's Maria?" she suddenly asked.

And suddenly he cared. "I don't think I gave you permission to ask about her," he growled.

"You're right, you didn't. How is she doing?" She asked again. Shadow glared back at her. Her face held firm and blank, but in her eyes, he saw guilty and worry slip past her mask.

So, she actually did care. What a shock. "She's doing fine," he replied.

"Just fine?"

"Yes, she's doing fine… as fine as someone in her situation can. Rouge is also looking after her," he explained, hoping the mention of his aunt would make her back off.

"Ah, that's good at least. Your aunt was always a caring one..." she looked like she wanted to say more but didn't.

Shadow wanted the conversation to end there, but he was curious as well. "So, how are your parents doing?"

"Little hypocritical to ask about my folks now, isn't it?" She commented before pausing for a moment. "They're doing ok as well. Dad's still the chieftain and mom is actually trying to get into politics with him."

That made Shadow scoff with a smile. "A little out of her element, don't you think?"

"We tried to tell her that she was too nice for politics but she didn't listen. But, she's actually doing well for herself."

"Hmm, that's a surprise," Shadow said. It was honestly hard to imagine someone like Blake's mom getting into politics when Ghira was doing as well as he was. His only real perception of politics was from movies and shows. How a kind and sweet older woman could deal with so much bullshit was beyond him.

"You know, mom said you're welcomed back if you want," Blake broke him from his thought, almost making him trip.

"I'm sorry, what?" Shadow didn't try to hide his surprise.

"You heard me," she said as they reached their dorm rooms. "See you later, good talk" she entered her room and closed the door behind her.

Shadow stood in the hallway alone, pondering what she just said for several minutes. "She's fucking with me," he said to himself, "she has to be." Don't get him wrong, Ghira and Kali were nice people, the nicest he's ever met. However, the last time he saw them, Kali screamed at him and slapped him across the face so hard he fell to the floor. He didn't leave on good terms with them.

Sure, a lot of time has passed since then, but enough for them to put it all behind them as Blake said? No, it was impossible.

* * *

Jaune Arc groaned as his head fell to his hands.

"Come on Jaune," his twin sister patted his shoulder, "don't take it so hard."

"Joan, that's the fourth time you asked that same question and I got it wrong again," he moped while looking at the textbook about aura and dust in her hands.

"Well, I also couldn't grasp the concept for the longest time," Pyrrha chimed in. "It's not the easiest concept to grasp for beginners."

"I'd believe that if I knew you weren't lying."

"I'm sorry," guilt filled her voice.

"No no, it's fine. I appreciate it though," he offered a smile to show no harm done.

However, this was still extremely frustrating. Because of when he and his teammates unlocked their auras, they were lacking knowledge and information that was common knowledge to the huntress students. They were essentially college freshmen put into senior-level courses. They, understandably, were struggling. Teams RWBY and JNPR formed a study group with each other and invited ARGN into it as well. It helped only a little bit, but the boys were appreciative of it. Joan, and in association Pyrrha, have taken their own time to try and help Jaune with homework in the library on more than one occasion, and he did his best to pass the knowledge back to his team.

"You know, I almost envy you," Joan said. "I'll gladly swap your academic troubles with my social troubles."

"What troubles? No offense, but I'm pretty sure I'm lower on the ladder than you," he said. Jaune was aware that he and the rest of his team received attention from practically every girl in the school. However it wasn't all positive, he knew they were looked down upon. Their performances in Glynda's class played a key role in that. Their combat prowess was on full display and the skill gap was more than obvious. Each of them had fought in the arena at least twice, and they all fared no better than Rost's first fight. Many started to question the legitimacy of their presence. Jaune even heard 'diversity hires' used to describe them once, but he kept that to himself.

"Jaune, you have no idea how many girls tried talking to me only to steer the conversation to you, your interests, your hobbies," Joan listed on.

"You, you're joking, right? This isn't some joke just to mess with me, right?"

"Jaune, would you're kind and caring sister ever mess with you like that?"

"Yes she would and she has. I still haven't forgiven you for the bed monster incident."

"We were five."

"Point still stands."

Pyrrha couldn't help but start giggling at that. "Can I hear that story?"

"No."

"Later," Joan said, getting a glare from her brother and another giggle from Pyrrha.

"I was serious though, there are several girls that tried getting on my good side just to try and get to you. `Oh hey Joan, nice day were having huh. Oh by the way, how's that twin brother of yours doing? Is he single?' It's ridiculous."

"Welcome to how I felt during for the past seven years," he commented with a smile. Seriously, so many people tried pretending to be his friend to get a shot at Joan. It was ridiculous.

"Excuse me," all three turned to an approaching student, a faunus with horns, as she approached Jaune. "Sorry to bother you, but I'm doing a paper and I need that book you have. Could I have it?" She asked with a friendly smile and tilt to the head.

"Uh… yeah sure," Jaune then quickly grabbed and held it up to here. "All yours."

"Such a gentleman, thank you," she smiled and winked as she walked away. There was a sway to her hip if only for a moment. Jaune turned back around, failing to hide a small amount of red to his cheeks. No one has ever done that to him before.

"And finally someone cuts out me as the middleman, thank you. Also nice to see you flushed for a change," Joan teased as Pyrrha suppressed a giggle.

Looking at Pyrrha for a moment, Jaune saw an opportunity. "Kinda like how you get when you look at Pyrrha's butt when she goes to pick something up."

"What?"

"What?!"

"Well, gotta go, take care," Jaune said as he left with an evil younger sibling grin on his face. The best kind of messing with your siblings was the kind that also helped them.

Exiting the library, he saw the same girl from before at a table and got another good look at her. An older student, a faunus with horns… wait, that the girl that was giving Gabriel a hard time. Did she just… to him? ' _Ok, that was weird._ ' Jaune just tried to put that behind him

His path back to his dorm was uneventful until he started to approach the locker room. He heard shouting and arguing and decided to investigate. The voices became clearer when he opened the door.

"I know this is hard for a slut to do, but could you keep your mouth closed for more than two seconds and shut up?" Rost spat out angrily.

"Excuse me?!" Carlisha screamed in kind. "What the fuck did you just say to me?!" The taller woman grabbed Rost's shirt with both hands and forced him against a locker. Rost managed to break free and kick her back. Both managed to get one quick step forward before they were stopped.

"Hey hey hey, stop!" Jaune managed to rush between them and hold them away from each other. "Break it up!" Right now, he only cared about stopping a fight from breaking out and getting Rost in trouble. They struggled against Jaune for a moment before they reluctantly backed away, "Ok, so what the heck happened?"

They both were silent. Their faded slightly but it was still their. "We had a disagreement," Rost said as he took a step back.

"A disagreement?" Jaune said, not believe that was all to it.

"No he's right," Carlisha said as she took a step back as well. "Just a disagreement."

It was more than obvious that that was not the case, but right now Jaune was just happy a fight didn't break out. "Rost, let's go," Jaune said as he led his teammate out of the room. He took one last look at Carshila before the door closed and could have sworn she looked distraught.

Jaune led the way back to their dorm. "Rost, are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, it was nothing. Just a small thing," he shrugged it off.

"I'd believe you if that was the first scuffle you had with her, but it's not. What is going on with you and Carlisha "

"Nothing I can't handle on my own, Don't worry about me."

"Don't think I'd be a good leader if I did that. Rost, we here if you need help, you know that right?"

"Jaune, I am more than aware of that and do really appreciate it. But if I do ask for help, so will she. This is a personal problem I need to solve on my own,"

"But Rost-"

"Jaune, please," Rost's pace picked up, Jaune's slowed down to a halt.

"Damn it," Jaune sighed. He really wanted to help Rost, but if he didn't accept the help, then what could he do?

He felt like a failure.

* * *

In the heart of uncharted territory, of inhospitable land where the creatures of Grimm flourished and the sun never shined, a lone man watched over it. He watched over the land lost in the thought, thinking of an upcoming event.

Tomorrow, Beacon Academy would have its annual freshman trip to the Forever Falls forest. It has always been unnoteworthy and thus always ignored. However, this year was different. Four special individuals will be partaking in the event.

So, he has arranged a little test, one that would give him something he needs whether it succeeds or fails.

* * *

 **A/N** : _Alight so 2 things:_

 _-I know it feels weird and off that Rost didn't get his own segment while the other guys did this chapter, but the next chapter will mainly be from his POV, and having a segment here would just mean I'll be unnecessarily repeating stuff in the next chapter._

 _-Yes that is male Salem, but I don't know whether to change the name or keep it as Salem. What do you guys think?_

 _And no, just because the guys are having one v one scenes with girls doesn't mean they're getting shipped._

 _Don also wanted to add something for the author's note but I forgot what it was, but I'm willing to bet it had something to do with hating Pyrrha and trying to convince me to make this knightshade._

 _Anyway, thanks again for reading, have a good day :)_


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